DT2 Dark Elements
by Lamby
Summary: Dark Trilogy part 2. Storm discovers someone is watching her, Mystique plots with Magneto,Gambit is released from prison, & Blaze tries to find out who she really is. AU to X3.
1. Scene 1

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: The sequel to Dark Is The Hour, set four months later, but hopefully this is fairly self-explanatory so you shouldn't have to have read it. Feel free to check out that story though if there is anything else you want to know, and reviews are always welcome for both stories (Hint hint!). Enjoy...  
  
Scene 01  
  
"Can anybody tell me what the characteristics are that make seasonal flood plains so tempting for human habitation?" Ororo Munroe addressed her geography class at Xavier's School, but as she did she glanced out the window uneasily. Was there someone out there? "No? All right then, for next time read chapter seven section five of your texts. Class dismissed."  
  
Bobby and Kitty exchanged quizzical glances, they had both had their hands up to answer the question. In front of them, Colossus nodded his head towards the clock; they still had fifteen minutes to go. Bobby shrugged in return and the whole class started towards the door, not wanting to miss out on an unexpected extra break.  
  
By now Storm was satisfied that there was nothing outside; that she must have imagined the uncomfortable feeling of being watched. But knowing it didn't comfort her. Briefly she thought about going and telling the Professor, but he was so busy all the time now so she dismissed the idea. Maybe some fresh air would settle her nerves...  
  
The great wooden front door of the manor house closed with a clunk behind her. Storm set off, not into the endless grounds as she had intended, but down the gravelled drive. She still couldn't get rid of the feeling of being watched. As she walked the crisp winter sun clouded over and the sky fell dark and brooding. Reaching the end of the drive, she put a hand to the cold gate, the stillness of the winter morning almost suffocating her. Suddenly with a rumble like thunder a special delivery van pulled up in front of her and stopped, engine idling.  
  
"This Xavier's School?" The uniformed driver asked, intent on his electronic notebook.  
  
"Yes." Replied the eloquent young woman. "Can I help you?"  
  
"Package for Ms Munroe. Sign here." The man handed the notebook to Storm, and she obliged though a little confused. She hadn't been expecting anything. The box he gave her was no less confusing. It was large and roughly bound, with foreign stamps and a smudged postmark.  
  
"Bye now." Said the delivery driver as he climbed back into the truck and set off. Storm didn't even acknowledge him; she was already heading back to the school wondering if it was possible she'd known this parcel was coming?  
  
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"Tell me again, why are we doing this?" Pyro dropped a heavy piece of unidentifiable equipment hard on the cold floor in stubbornness.  
  
"I would have thought," Mystique replied in her million voices, "That you of all people would understand what we are trying to achieve here."  
  
For a moment he stood and looked at her sleek blue back as she played with her computer terminal. When she finally turned and faced him, he knew she was expecting an answer.  
  
"I know what we are doing, yeah. We're building a mutation accelerator. But how do we know it will even work? And why's it so important we have it?"  
  
"Eugh. Do you have so little imagination?" Suddenly the blue woman began to change, morphing into a stunning redhead as she walked towards John. Long red curls framed a delicate face, putting red lips seemed to long for his kiss, and deep, soulless brown eyes challenged his very perspectives. Pyro gulped heavily as Mystique grabbed his jaw in a cold, hard grip.  
  
"A few months ago I met a girl. Her name is Blaze, and her powers are very similar to yours. She can control fire. But more than that she is agile, fast, intelligent..." She slurred her last word, pointing out her insult to him. "And she can create fire of her own." Letting go of John almost violently, Mystique turned and walked away again, shape-shifting back into her own shape. "When we finish this machine as Magneto has ordered, perhaps he will let you use it to gain equal powers to Blaze."  
  
"She beat you, didn't she?" Pyro grinned manically. "That's why you came back here sulking. You got your ass whooped!"  
  
"More than you know." Mystique's long fingers tapped away again on the keyboard, working on the plans she had emailed to herself before Blaze could destroy that console in Jacobi's lair. Had it really been four months ago? "But I can be patient, when I need to be..."  
  
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The knife cut quickly through the tape on the box, splitting it open like a gutted fish. Almost nervously Storm plucked at the shredded paper packing, teasing it away. The corner of a brown envelope became visible, and she pulled at it, tugging till it was in her trembling hand. Elegant fingers ripped the corner, slid inside and opened it. A note, handwritten on heavy embossed paper.  
  
Storm,  
  
We have been watching you. We know everything about you, Air-Goddess, Phantom of the Ages. Nearly it is your time. Nearly but not quite. You know this too; you can feel the change in the winds. Re-double your training; be quicker, stronger, better. You will need all the skills and powers you possess. Then we will be in touch. In the meantime, may chance this gift will aid your memory...  
  
It was unsigned, and the letter formation was unfamiliar to Storm. Yet they said they knew her? Reaching back into the box, her fingers brushed something metallic. A ring, gold and heavy and engraved with runes she couldn't understand. It was beautiful, with a single solitaire diamond set into the wide gold band. Unthinking, Storm slid it onto her right-hand thumb, watched it as it glinted in the light, and almost, almost she could remember seeing this ring somewhere before... 


	2. Scene 2

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Also thanks in this chapter to the scientific journal 'Nature;, I don't own that either. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Thanks to Knight of Avlee for his proof reading attempts! Reviews are always welcome.  
  
Scene 02  
  
"Mutation. There has been much speculation in the scientific world about why and how the evolution of mankind has appeared to so suddenly leap forward. Why now? How does it happen? The nature of mutation is complex, and it is only in studying the present that we can begin to unlock this past. Mutation in human beings can manifest itself in many guises. Mutants are human beings often feared or admired because their genetic differences may give them special abilities or powers beyond the capabilities of normal man. But equally mutation can become a curse. No power comes without responsibility, without 'down-sides'. Mutation may not only affect the physiology of the mutant, but also their metabolism, phenotypic looks, and their mental state and behaviour. For years the world searched for an answer to the nature versus nurture debate, before deciding that each was equally important. But with the current conflict between the nature of mutants' phenotypic changes and the world around them, lack of understanding about the difficulties of growing up as a mutant may unbalance this delicate equilibrium."  
  
The girl on the plane closed her moth-eaten copy of Nature and placed it on the table in front of her. Leaning back in her first class seat, she eyed the man on the front cover carefully. Charles Xavier, the Professor, was the...unusual...author of the intriguing study she had just finished reading. The effects of mutation on individuals, looking at the changes undergone by children and teenagers as they grew into their mutant powers. It was the summation of years of work by the top mind in the field of mutant research, and understandable why Nature had wanted Xavier's face on their front cover.  
  
**You've done it again, Professor. ** Thought the girl **Made me think about things I've never dreamt about before. ** She paused for a second, in case the telepathic Xavier was listening. Sometimes he was, but not today. So she allowed her mind to drift instead to her dreams, for whilst they might not be filled with intellectual discussion, they were packed to the brim with an awful lot else. It was a wonder she ever awoke rested. She smiled to herself as she fought not to blush.  
  
The plane rumbled as it hit a pocket of turbulence and the girl christened Laura but known better as Blaze felt a slight shudder of fear run up her spine. The fear wasn't hers though; it belonged to a little old lady sitting across the isle who had never been on a plane before. Concentrating, Blaze sent a touch of her own calm and boredom over to the woman and saw her settle back into reading her romantic novel. In a burst of soul-searching Blaze wondered how much of what Xavier had said about the children he had studied was true of her? A mutant only really since she was fifteen, were her powers, personality and appearance all linked to one mutated genetic factor?  
  
A while later, when the old lady was snoring slightly and the man in front flirting with a bored looking hostess, Blaze put down her pen and eyed her brainstorm warily. All around the margins of two pages of the scientific journal words were scrawled in her untidy handwriting. Words like impulsive, redhead, agile, emotive, warm, homely, and quick to angry. Some of the words she wrote on good authority that they weren't just flattery; seductive, attractive and even beautiful. Loving was there, but love wasn't a word that she was fond of using, love caused only pain. But there was one word she had unwittingly written in capital print, the word 'fire'. The loner she looked at that one word, the more her life, the other words, made sense. Taking up her pen again she drew lines from the other words to 'fire', if the word was something she could use to describe the element itself. Before long, there were not many words left unconnected. Was then her entire self tied totally to the element she though she controlled? Could it be more possible that the element controlled her?  
  
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Remy le Beau was bored. No, he had passed bored weeks ago, now he was sick of boredom, driven mad by staring at the concrete walls, and desperate to try and blow something, anything into a billion tiny pieces. Preferably a guard.  
  
At that cue there was a clatter down the hall. Remy eyed the security camera that was looking at him through the titanium bars of his cell with suspicion. The mutant known also as Gambit then swung round on his bunk and planted his feet on the concrete floor. It always paid to be ready for a fight.  
  
Nick Hobson had not been a guard at the prison for long. He'd hired on straight from leaving school, some contact of his father's getting him the post. He didn't mind the job, the long hours kept him out of his parent's house and the money kept his girlfriend Becky happy. But he hated the inmates with a passion, mutant scum who thought they were better than anyone. Especially le Beau. Nobody at the prison liked the Cajun, though nobody knew why. Nick had the feeling that it hadn't always been like that; that at one point the guards had been pretty slack with the guy. But something had happened that none of them could remember, and now they mistrusted and despised the mutant inmate.  
  
Hobson stopped the food trolley outside Gambit's solitary confinement cell, and looked with interest around the room. Gambit knew the routine, let him inspect the hellhole; he had nothing to hide, literally. There was nothing removable in the room, nothing his powers would allow him to use as a weapon. No blankets, no trinkets, the bunk was moulded out of the concrete wall, the bars electrified so he couldn't touch them. Even his prison regulation clothes were minimal, and he was only allowed one set at once. Before a certain episode Gambit wasn't about to remind the guards of, he had had his own clothes, packs of cards, and a thick patchwork quilt one of the guard's mothers had sent in for him...  
  
"Prisoner! Stand away from the bars!" Hobson yelled at the top of his lungs. It echoed around the empty cell as Remy stood by the bunk, nowhere near the bars.  
  
"What? Gambit not allowed out for a little R and R? Maybe your girlfriend could come visit again instead then, eh ami? A man could go mad in here alone."  
  
"Don't get ideas above yourself, mutant." Snarled Hobson's senior, a butch six-footer called O'Malley. "You ain't no man."  
  
"That's not what your wife say, ami." Gambit commented. O'Malley's face contorted and he bared his teeth in a hyena like grin.  
  
"And that's incitement le Beau. Now you gonna get it!"  
  
"Get what? My lunch?" Gambit knew exactly what O'Malley was talking about. It was like this every day. Some guards were worse than others, but O'Malley and Hobson were absolute torment. Shame, before the episode of two months ago, he'd quite liked Hobson. O'Malley though had always been an idiot.  
  
"You want your lunch, le Beau?" Hobson tipped the plate of mush onto the floor. "Oops, now look what I've done!"  
  
"Yeah, you're a clumsy fool Hobs." O'Malley sneered at Gambit. "Maybe le Beau would like a workout instead of lunch?"  
  
O'Malley's key card slid into the lock and the small door slid open. Hobson pointed his taser at le Beau, ready to stun him if he fought back, and sometimes if he didn't. Gambit steeled himself, fists clenching, red-on- black eyes narrowing. O'Malley may be bigger than he was, and have back-up, but they were the kind of odds Gambit liked to play... 


	3. Scene 3

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 03  
  
"Hey, bub. Whacha doin'?"  
  
"Um, puttin' our money down for the next game?"  
  
"Not tonight you're not. This table's booked."  
  
"Lighten up, Logan." Scott commented, rolling his eyes behind red glasses. "It's a game of pool, not the end of the world."  
  
"And if I have to spend the night babysitting you," Wolverine emphasised the babysitting, making Cyclops' skin crawl. "I'm damn well allowed what little fun there is in this dump!"  
  
"Keep it down will you?" Scott frowned as he glanced round Diego's bar, seeing the other clients watching curiously.  
  
"Alright," Wolverine turned to address the worried looking young man that had only wanted to play pool. "You take the table. But Cyc," He looked to his X-Man colleague, "Its your round."  
  
"Fair enough." Cyclops sighed, just glad not to be the centre of attention in the bar anymore. If only the Professor would just trust him where alcohol was concerned, Logan wouldn't need to be here and then... "Gimme a soda Diego, and a beer for my friend there."  
  
"No problem." Replied the barman. Across the bar, Logan took a seat with a heavy sigh. He supposed it was kinda a dare, in Cyclops' head, coming to a bar and not drinking. Part of his recovery from the alcoholism that had plagued him after Jean's sacrifice. But it scared the X-Men, especially the Professor. Hence the reason why Logan was here, not at the manor beating Bobby and Rogue at foosball, or sat in his room wishing Ilehana would at least call him...  
  
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"No, no, no! Girls you cannot be serious! I'm not hearing this!" Kitty put her hands to her ears and grimaced at Jubilee and Rogue's manic giggling. They were hiding away in Rogue's room, on the pretence of watching DVDs and armed with more popcorn and fizzy drinks than any girl should be allowed in one night. Wrapped in sleeping bags and sat around the room, it was almost like the early teenage years all of them had missed were being relived. Complete with conversation subjects.  
  
"Seriously, Kitty! If you squint hard enough, its like the Professor just morphs into...."  
  
"No! I told you Jubilee! I don't wanna think about it!" All three girls collapsed into giggles. "So," Somehow Kitty got control of herself again. What d'you girls think of Colossus these days?"  
  
"Umm." Jubilation Lee's eyes rolled back in her skull and she flicked her shoulder length black hair out of her face. "He's definitely doin' things for me!"  
  
"Jubilee!" Kitty squealed. "Have a little class, wont you?"  
  
"What about you, Rogue?" Jubilee asked cheekily. "Any opinions on our good friend Colossus."  
  
"Not really." Rogue smiled sweetly, meeting both her classmates' eyes one after the other.  
  
"Oh come on! Just coz you're an old married, you and Bobby, don't mean you've no opinion on anyone else!" Jubilee was adamant.  
  
"Well, maybe..."  
  
"Yeah! Who?" Kitty sat suddenly upright, alert.  
  
"An' why should I tell you?" Rogue asked incredulously in her broad southern accent.  
  
"Coz we're you're friends, girl!" Jubilee cut in. "Come on, we wont tell!"  
  
"Well you know, I mean... I'm happy with Bobby okay? But..."  
  
"Yeah, Yeah! Give us a name already!" Kitty was almost bouncing round the room.  
  
"Remember Gambit?" Rogue asked, dropping her big soulful eyes, before glancing back up again to take in her friends' reactions. Jubilee was just looking at her, but Kitty was grinning like mad.  
  
"I knew you liked him, I knew it!"  
  
"But you got a boyfriend, which means I get first shot when he comes back, 'kay?"  
  
"Jubilee?" Rogue asked  
  
"Guys like that," Shadowcat cut in, "Guys like that don't wander about single, you know? He'll already have someone." Her eyes glazed over. "Remy le Beau, his real name even sounds seductive!"  
  
"Tell me about it!" Rogue replied. Suddenly the door creaked open, and Storm stood there dressed in her long grey dressing gown and nightdress.  
  
"Girls it's late. Keep it down at least?"  
  
"Yes, Storm." All three girls cheeped in unison. The door started to creek shut again.  
  
"Storm?" Kitty asked with characteristic cheekiness. "Were Blaze and Gambit together? You know, like, a couple?"  
  
"Maybe." Replied Storm, distractedly. "Is it any of your business?" 


	4. Scene 4

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 04  
  
Disembarking the plane, Blaze rifled quickly through her hand luggage for her passport. There weren't many people about; the plane hadn't been anywhere near fun. Mostly businessmen rushed past her armed with laptops and mobile phones and passports. A few tourists, but February wasn't really a tourist-y kinda month.  
  
"Passport?" A security guard behind a desk asked her through bulletproof glass. Blaze had never liked security guards, came of growing up as a thief.  
  
"Yes, here." Blaze flashed it at him, but it must have been a slow day and he beckoned her to put it in the tray and pass it to him.  
  
"Melanie Beckett?" He asked, scrutinising the photograph a little more closely than Blaze would have liked. That passport was as good a fake as she'd ever had, and it had got her in countries before.  
  
"Yes," She replied, thinking **Don't let it fail now. **  
  
**I won't. If you can tell me why you are trying to get into a foreign country with a forged passport? ** A familiar voice sounded both amused and concerned in her head.  
  
**Professor? Well, I can't hardly use my own. People are still after me after my parent's deaths...**  
  
"Fair enough." Replied the security guard, and Blaze knew Xavier was speaking through him. He put the passport back through the slot and Blaze breathed an audible sigh of relief.  
  
"Thank you." She said it sincerely and headed to pick up her single suitcase.  
  
**What are you doing in Cairo, Blaze? **  
  
**Um, sightseeing. You know, pyramids and tombs and stuff. That cat thing...**  
  
**The Sphinx? ** The Professor did not betray any emotion as he quizzed her.  
  
**Yeah. Always wanted to see it. ** They both knew she was lying.  
  
**Promise me Blaze that you are not up to your old tricks again. **  
  
**I promise Professor. ** This time she wasn't lying, why be a thief when you didn't have to? When you have a home and food and people who care about you? Suddenly she missed the Xavier mansion like she'd never missed her parent's home. She'd been away too long; four months is a long time. **I've just got some questions I need answering. **  
  
**All right, but take care. And don't forget you've only a month until you are due home, unless you want me to cancel your date for you? ** The Professor was smiling now, knowing her answer before she even gave it to him.  
  
**No thanks! I'll be there, trust me! **  
  
Charles Xavier was gone. Reaching out Blaze picked her small black case up, and on her right thumb a gold ring inlayed with a single ruby glinted in the airport's dim electric lights.  
  
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"Bobby what's wrong with you today?" Rogue snapped at her boyfriend as again he turned away from her.  
  
"Me? What about you? Tell me Rogue, you got designs on anybody else besides Gambit? Or is he just lucky?" Bobby was more than annoyed; he was furious, and heartbroken. How could she?  
  
"Oh." Rogue looked suddenly abashed. "You heard that?"  
  
"Yeah." The sarcasm was heavy in Bobby's voice. "Everybody did, you three were screeching like a pack of banshees!" A small girl over the other side of the rec. room glared at him.  
  
"I didn't mean anything by it! Bobby I swear. Yeah, Gambit's kinda cute, but he's not a patch on you!" Rogue knew she was talking too quickly, but she was panicky. "An' I know you like Blaze too..."  
  
"Whatever, Rogue. Just whatever." Bobby stormed off in a mood that would make Wolverine proud. Rogue stood there a second, in shock, and then ran off to her room in floods of tears.  
  
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"Have you noticed, Logan, how everyone is so unsettled around here at the moment?" The Professor asked the Wolverine casually. They were in Xavier's office, the Professor sat behind the desk and Logan stood facing him, cigar clenched between his teeth. He removed it before replying.  
  
"Things haven't been settled since Jean died, sir." Logan answered with feeling.  
  
"I know. But with time those wounds have mostly healed. This is different, like children cooped up inside on a rainy day we snipe and grasp at each other." The Professor placed his elbows on the desk and put his chin on his hands.  
  
"Yeah, well." Logan shrugged, "The time of year, you know. Dark all the time, Christmas and New Years done with..."  
  
"And no word from my daughter." Xavier raised an eyebrow at Logan, smiling. "Which, I hazard a guess, is why you are here?"  
  
"I just wanna know she's okay." Logan said, trying not to be embarrassed. It just wasn't normal, pining over a woman. But neither was Ilehana just any woman.  
  
For a moment the Professor went blank, and Logan could almost hear him reach out to his telepathic, shape-shifting daughter.  
  
"She's fine." Xavier addressed Logan again. "But she would appreciate a visit, I think. Would you take these journals and magazines for her please?" Xavier indicated to a growing pile of periodicals sat in the corner of his office. "I believe she is in Germany. The Black Forest. More than that, even I don't know."  
  
"Thanks Professor." Logan was as grateful for the excuse as much as the directions. He left the mansion within the hour, journals in hand like a weapon lest anyone question him... 


	5. Scene 5

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 05  
  
"Mystique, what a pleasure!" Magneto exclaimed almost sincerely. "How goes things with our little firefly?" On the other side of the video link, Mystique grimaced as she replied.  
  
"Pyro is impatient, he wants to know more of your plans and doesn't like being left out of the loop. But he'll get over it."  
  
"Good. It's best for the boy not to know. And the machine?"  
  
"Nearly finished." Mystique stepped aside to reveal a shining steel laboratory, and in the centre a complex arrangement of operating table and computer terminal, restraints and mechanical arms. The mutation accelerator looked simply hideous. Magneto smiled.  
  
"Very good. And ahead of schedule. But then, I expect nothing less from you Mystique. I will have the appropriate chemicals ordered and sent to your location as soon as is possible. Tell me, do you have any preferred candidates for the first test run?"  
  
Mystique smiled, showing her white teeth against blue lips. She had one or two ideas...  
  
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The land rover would have screeched to a halt, but the shifting golden sand muffled the noise. The sun beat down overhead despite the month. Blaze tugged her headscarf straight to tame her masses of wild curls and jumped out of the car, wondering when the last time she had worn sunglasses in February was?  
  
Before her, reaching out of the sands like the arm of a drowning man stood a great pillar. At least part of what she had told Xavier was true, there was one tomb here in Egypt she was interested in seeing. The entrance loomed dark and foreboding below the pillar, steps lead to it from the paved deck above where the pillar stood, the last remaining pillar of four. Once a roof would have been supported on those pillars, providing shade from the desert sun. Blaze had already seen the tomb's contents, back in a museum in Paris years before. But what she wanted to see now was only to be found on the walls of the tomb itself.  
  
With little effort Blaze conjured a ball of fire that danced on her hand. Entering the tomb, she sent the little light-globe ahead of her. It lit up steps that wandered steeply down, steps riddled with cracks and holes that threatened to send her tumbling head first into the darkness.  
  
Deep inside the bowels of the structure, the dust had been recently disturbed. Somebody else had been here, possibly only days ago. Were they searching for the same answers as Blaze? In a flash of her powers, Blaze sent four more fireballs out to illuminate the corners of the room. Nobody here now, though. The first fireball danced above the patch on the wall where the worst of the sand and grime had already been cleared away. Yes, this was what she wanted. Symbols were written, carved into the stone, not Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics, but runes that matched the ones on her ruby ring...  
  
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Storm shuddered unexplainably and Nightcrawler looked at her sideways.  
  
"Are you alright, Storm? You look like you've seen a ghost? Or maybe someone has walked over your grave?"  
  
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Gambit wiped his bleeding nose on the sleeve of his prison uniform. The same instant, the barred door of his cell clunked shut and the guard removed his key card. He'd actually seemed jealous that Gambit had had some post this morning. Jealous of a single postcard now splattered with Remy's blood. The first post he'd had in nearly twenty-two months of being there. Gambit flicked it away sullenly and lent back against the wall, pinching the bridge of his nose till the bleeding stopped.  
  
It took a while before Gambit could dunk his bloody face in the washbasin. His nose wasn't broken, fortunately for the guard. Shaking the excess water out of his eyes and hair he went to pick up the offending postcard. Egypt? He didn't know anyone in Egypt. Puzzled the Cajun turned it over. He recognised the scruffy handwriting instantly.  
  
Remy,  
  
Trust you are okay, sorry I haven't been **in touch**, but it just doesn't work long distance. Still, nothing like snail mail, eh Ami? By my count its three weeks till you are out of there. Can't wait to see you, will come pick you up in style.  
  
Take care,  
  
Blaze (sorry, Laura.) xxx  
  
Gambit had to smile, bust nose or not it was worth it just to know his little protégée was doin' fine... and in Cairo? Last he'd heard she'd been headin' for her old home back in England. Still, so long as she was okay and hadn't forgotten him. Three weeks had never seemed so long...  
  
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Snow fell heavy on the mansion and its grounds, glinting in the sunset. It was beautiful, all the manmade blemishes on the landscape blotted out by crisp white beauty. A knock came on Rogue's door as she leant out the open window, reaching to touch the cold snow with ungloved fingers.  
  
"Come in." She expected Kitty, or maybe Jubilee. It was neither. Bobby pushed the door aside, creaking and came to stand besides Rogue at the window. The door closed again with a clunk.  
  
"Bobby, I..."  
  
"Don't say anything Rogue. Just, don't..." He reached out into the open air, letting the snowflakes land on his palm. But unlike those that touched Rogue's skin, these didn't melt. Silently he employed his power, capturing the falling snow in clear ice that rose steadily from his hand. Entranced Rogue could see the tiny, perfect snowflakes glinting through the ice. She reached out and brushed the ice surface with a finger.  
  
"For you." He said at last when the model was complete, a phoenix of ice rising from snowflake ashes. "It wont last long but... I'm sorry Rogue, okay. I over-reacted."  
  
"Bobby... Thank you, its beautiful." Rogue stood the model on the windowsill, where the cold air would preserve it the longest. Gently she reached up and carefully brushed his lips with her own, then quickly pulled away. She didn't want to hurt him.  
  
"I better go." Bobby said hesitantly, "Sleep well Rogue."  
  
"Yeah, you too." The door closed behind him. Rogue waited about five seconds for Bobby to make it to his own room, before tearing down the corridor in her nightclothes to get Shadowcat and Jubilee before the ice- phoenix melted... 


	6. Scene 6

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 06  
  
Ilehana the Wolf had an itch. So, being a wolf and therefore endlessly practical she stopped her lope through the Black Forest and scratched it. She was thoroughly enjoying herself when she caught the whiff of a familiar odour on the breeze. The Wolverine had entered her forest...  
  
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Mystique snarled at the computer screen in fury. Whilst working at Jacobi's lair she had of course frequently emailed all the information she had gathered to herself. Some information was too precious to loose, and Magneto was depending on her. But in her last few days there she had learned much, and lost all of it to Blaze's hand. Now the progress of the mutation accelerator hung in the balance, and she did not have the information she needed to complete the complicated program. Abruptly she struck a brainwave. What was it Gambit had said about Blaze having a powerful memory? Perhaps the very mutant who had caused her this problem could solve it, for a price? Of course it would be Blaze, not Mystique who paid...  
  
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Xavier's mansion was still, the snow had stopped falling leaving everything blanketed in pallor. Somewhere an alarm bleeped, a stranger was entering the grounds through the front gate. Dressed in a dark trench coat, the stranger made a black smudge on the clean white landscape. Xavier smiled; dismissing his class he went to welcome his X-Man home.  
  
Blaze dropped her single case on the floor of the mansion with a clunk and a heavy sigh. She was exhausted, and how come it had to be so cold here?  
  
"Blaze! You're back!"  
  
"Yep, looks like it." She had to grin as Scott gave her a friendly hug. "Good to see you, Cyclops."  
  
"You too," He'd forgotten how pretty she was. Why did he feel guilty for thinking that? "Is it me, or is that coat a bit big for you?"  
  
"Its Remy's," Blaze grinned, "It's the only one that will fit over the twenty-seven jumpers I'm wearing underneath! It's freezing here!"  
  
"Is it? I kinda like it!" Bobby hugged her too as Rogue grinned happily.  
  
"Bobby put Blaze down," The Professor smiled easily. He addressed Blaze then mentally. **Did you find the answers you were seeking? **  
  
**No, only more questions I'm afraid. **  
  
**If you need to talk...**  
  
**I know Professor, thank you, but...** Storm came into the corridor from the underground labyrinth of the X-Men. "Where did you get that ring?"  
  
At Blaze's almost angry question, the X-Men glanced at each other, confused. Except for Storm.  
  
"It was given to me, a gift."  
  
"Do you know who from?" Storm did not balk from Blaze's interrogation. Down the hall Nightcrawler appeared in a cloud of purple smoke, and several of Xavier's students were already staring at the pride of X-Men, especially Blaze.  
  
"No. It came with a note, but it was unsigned." Storm frowned. "Why are you so interested, Blaze? Do you know something about it?"  
  
"You could say that." Blaze flashed her own ruby ring at the older woman. "Professor, is there somewhere private Storm and I could talk? You are welcome too of course."  
  
It was not lost on the other X-Men that Blaze was excluding them. To Rogue and Bobby, it felt like an ageist prejudice; did Blaze, only a few years older, really think they couldn't handle themselves. Scott was hurt by Blaze's lack of trust in him, hadn't he proved himself to her yet? Nightcrawler did not wish any ill will on Blaze, he knew better than any of the others that some councils are best unshared. Almost overpowered by the strength of emotions she could feel from her friends, Blaze took strength from Kurt's acceptance that she would do what she needed to, and followed Xavier and Storm into the lift down to the lower levels of the mansion.  
  
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In a small briefing room, Blaze dumped Remy's beloved coat and threw off several big woolly jumpers, before rifling through her small case for her hard backed notebook. Xavier and Storm watched her carefully, before Blaze sat down with them.  
  
"After I left here, what, nearly five months ago? I went back to the town I grew up in, in England. I was staying in some nameless motel whilst I tracked down my parents' graves..." Blaze choked a little, but steeled herself to continue. "One morning, as I was leaving the building, a royal mail van pulled up outside. The parcel it delivered was addressed to me, at the motel, even down to my room number. But I hadn't told anybody I was there, and I hadn't been there very long. In the parcel were this ring, and a note that was very cryptic and unsigned."  
  
"This happened to me also," Storm muttered at the Professor, placing her own ring besides Blaze's on the table in front of them. The diamond and ruby winked in the light.  
  
"And you were told that the ring would help you remember something." Blaze looked at Storm very carefully.  
  
"Yes." Storm frowned again, "But I don't know what."  
  
"I don't know what 'they' want us to remember either. But I did realise two things. Firstly, that the postage paid on the parcel, and the postmark, was from the town where I was born." A wave of recognition ran over Storm's face, followed by a wave of worry. Blaze continued. "I wasn't born in the town I grew up in. My Mother was Irish, I was born in a little village in Ireland and we only moved when I was two. But we also frequently visited the village throughout my childhood, because my Grandmother lived there. And so I also realised that some of the runes on this ring were very similar to ones I had seen engraved on an Ancient Celtic monument, a great tablet of carved stone, about twelve miles from the village."  
  
"That marvellous photographic memory of yours again, Blaze? To remember things from childhood like that?" Xavier was intrigued. Blaze nodded and opened her notebook.  
  
"These are the runes on the tablet. It is definitely the same alphabet as the writing on the rings, wouldn't you say so Professor?" Xavier took the notebook from Blaze and examined it carefully. "I also tried to track down who had posted the box, but no-one in the village could help me."  
  
"And these runes are those you found in Egypt?" Xavier asked turning the page of the notebook.  
  
"No. Those I remembered seeing in Paris, when Remy and I lived there, in a museum. Did you know there are more Ancient Egyptian artefacts in Paris than in Cairo? I went back to France to check, found the mummy whose casket they were carved into. In both cases the runes are much later than the artefacts, archaeologists would call it ancient graffiti. Anyway I was so desperate to find some answers now that I tracked down the place where the mummy had been found, and went to the tomb in Egypt. There I found more runes, and something else. Somebody else has been doing the same thing as me; somebody else had been in that tomb looking for the runes. Storm, you and I are not the only ones with strange rings..." 


	7. Scene 7

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 07  
  
Gambit awoke with the usual dread, leaving his warm, flame-filled dreams for the gritty reality of another day behind bars. But quickly he knew that today was different. Inside his sleepy mind a presence that should have gone with his dreams smiled warmly.  
  
**I'm back, Remy... **  
  
**Blaze..? **  
  
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The morning of Gambit's release day dawned clear and bright. The snow began to melt, and it felt to Blaze that everything might be getting better, that spring was on its way. Sure, the Professor, Storm and herself had had little luck trying to further unravel the mystery of the rings, of who was watching them and why. But at least she had help now from them. She wasn't in this alone. She sensed that the Professor was even a little disappointed that neither Blaze nor Storm had come to talk to him about this earlier. But with such a puzzle, and possibly a brooding threat behind it, his extraordinary mind was for the most part busy trying to figure it all out to be really upset.  
  
The other X-Men had quickly got over their dismay at being left out of the story too. Blaze had more or less easily slotted back into life at the school, though where as the last time she had been here her main companions had been Bobby and Rogue, she liked spending time with the new sober Scott equally, if not more so. It left her with a tricky but pleasant feeling of having too many friends. Now that she was here, it was easy for her to understand why she had missed the mansion so much.  
  
Now with a towel turban round her wet hair, and her fluffy blue bathrobe wrapped tight around her, she rifled through her wardrobe in her old room as though she had never left. As always the window was open, curtains blowing in the breeze. Books lay scattered over the floor, some open and some shut, along with various notes and sketches to do with their ongoing ring research. Her ring itself was, as always, on her right thumb. The Professor had asked that Storm and Blaze refrain from wearing them until they understood more about them. The women had refused, something about both these rings had clicked with them and they didn't want to take them off. They had allowed the Professor to x-ray the rings, and do all sorts of tests on them. It was quickly established that they were what they appeared to be, inscribed gold rings with no hidden secrets. Blaze only wished everything were so simple...  
  
The knock on the door was Storm, who entered smiling with arms full of graceful clothes. In a twirl of long white hair and longer white skirts, she began hooking the clothes hangers all around the room; curtain rail, wardrobe door, anywhere she could. Blaze stood still looking kind of bemused.  
  
"I know today is important to you Blaze, and that you haven't much of a wardrobe here yet. So, as we are the same size I thought you might want to borrow..." Gracefully Ororo sat down on the edge of the bed.  
  
"Oh, thank you!" Blaze exclaimed, smoothing the soft silk of one skirt with her hand. "You must be telepathic or something! This stuff is amazing..." She turned back to Storm, her smile met by a frown on the face of the African lady.  
  
"That is twice you have called me telepathic, Blaze. But if I were, surely the Professor would tell me?"  
  
"Why? Do you think you might be? Storm, is something happening to your powers?"  
  
"No, I just..." Storm looked away, not wanting to meet Blaze's piercing brown eyes.  
  
"You're a sensitive lady, Storm. Perhaps that's all it is?" Storm looked up, knowing that Blaze would understand her answer.  
  
"No. I can sometimes now almost feel what people around me are feeling. It's.... distracting, unnerving. In class, if one of the students really wants to leave early, I find myself letting them go before the lesson is finished. I don't understand it..... Do you think it could be the rings?"  
  
"How do you mean?" Blaze was worried, and sat down carefully next to Storm on the edge of the bed.  
  
"Your telepathy, you'd call it more an empathy? Ilehana said you have difficulty making controlled contact, even with another telepath, that is rarely a problem with true telepaths? Also, it's secondary in development to your powers. Perhaps these rings have somehow triggered an empathic response in us both?"  
  
"No, I don't think so. At least, not for me. I've been sharing dreams with Remy for a year, and I can make contact with him no problems, so long as I am not too far away. It may be a little unorthodox telepathy, but whatever caused it is in me, not some ring. I didn't get the ring until after I left here, remember?" Blaze didn't know why she suddenly felt so defensive about her telepathic, or even empathic abilities, but she didn't like the idea that someone or something else might be causing them. She'd gotten so used to feeling what other people felt, and to sharing dreams and thoughts with Gambit, hat she couldn't bear the idea that it might all just go away again.  
  
"Alright." Ororo conceded, "Maybe you are right. I will talk to the Professor about it later. But..." She stood again, and Blaze with her. "What are you going to wear today?"  
  
For a microsecond Blaze's eyes glazed over, then she laughed aloud.  
  
"Rem says I should wear school uniform, and a very small school uniform at that! Either that or my X-Men uniform, but I think we can do better than that, don't you?"  
  
"Blaze, I know we can!" Ororo laughed, catching through Blaze a taste of Gambit's excitement and impatience. "Now get rid of that man before he spoils the surprise!" 


	8. Scene 8

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 08  
  
"Ta-da!" Blaze opened her bedroom door to greet her waiting audience with a smile and a pirouette. Wearing Rogue's brown cowboy boots, her own blue grey hipster jeans and a tan embroidered top of Storm's that didn't quite cover anything and revealed a slice of her toned middle, Blaze felt comfortable but stunning. This was a cool outfit!  
  
"Very nice." Assured Storm, smiling, whilst Rogue exclaimed, "You've got you belly button pierced!" With a finger Blaze brushed the silver skull that adorned her stomach, smiling.  
  
"Yeah. An old ex of Remy's gave called Mercury gave me this. I think she reformed his apartment key to do it. She said it was to remind me that if she ever saw me again, she'd kill me."  
  
"Did you ever see her again?" Rogue asked, aghast.  
  
"Yeah, but I was dating a police officer at the time. It didn't go down to well with him that she tried to kill me; he got her locked up for a long time. Gambit didn't speak to me for a month."  
  
"'Cause you got his girl locked up?" Rogue questioned.  
  
"Nah 'cause I was dating a cop! I mean, what was I thinking? Anyway he left for Rio with Electra..."  
  
"The Electra? Electra who worked for Jacobi?"  
  
"Of course. He found me again when he heard I'd a lucrative deal going down in Cape Town, wanted a share in the profit. He didn't get it though. And I wasn't stupid enough to ask where Electra had got to."  
  
Rogue's eyes flashed wide at the thought of this dangerous, international lifestyle. Storm only shook her head and went to collect the rejected clothes.  
  
"So," Rogue tried to be casual, "Has Gambit had many girlfriends?"  
  
"Ha!" Blaze laughed, turning to put in her earrings. "I stopped counting. Not many last long. The early ones were mostly okay, but he couldn't deal with them. There was a recent break up there that really stung him I think. Later on, as we both grew up, they just got bitchy. Couldn't deal with Rem and I being such good friends."  
  
"What about you and Gambit, Blaze?" Storm asked noncommittally.  
  
"If I knew the answer to that..." Blaze sighed, putting on a last coat of mascara and looking for her bag. "Things were getting kinda serious, once. But it didn't work out. Jacobi appeared and all hell broke loose."  
  
"Did he dump ya?" Rogue asked carelessly, before clapping her hands over her mouth in apology. Blaze frowned slightly before replying.  
  
"No. Come to think of it, we never actually broke up. Just got distracted." She shrugged. "Hard to have a relationship when a crime lord has designs on your man."  
  
"But Jacobi's gone now." Storm pointed out. "So where does that leave you and Gambit?"  
  
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Fresh air. Cool, crisp and not smelling of mould or dust. A breeze on his face. And a stunning redhead leaning casually on the bonnet of a sleek grey Aston Martin DB7 GT. O'Malley wondered if he should even bother going into work today.  
  
"Can I help you Miss?" The guard's tangible desire for her gave Blaze a sick feeling in her stomach.  
  
"No, thank you. I'm just waiting for someone."  
  
"Sorry for soundin' cheesy, Miss, but what's a lady like you doin' waitin' for somebody at a prison?" He was walking towards her, she had to get rid of him; he gave her the creeps.  
  
"Hey! Blaze!" With a cheap rucksack on his shoulder and a huge smile on his face, Remy le Beau sprinted through the prison gates and over to her. Ditching the bag on the floor, he scooped her up in his arms and kissed her. The kiss was gentle, slightly too long to be just friendly, fractionally too short to be romantic. But Blaze didn't care; she hugged him tight, revelling in his joy at being a free man.  
  
**Who's the creep? ** She asked as she unwound herself from his arms.  
  
"I cannot believe it!" O'Malley snarled snidely. "What's a mutant scum like you doing with a chick like that, le Beau? I tell ya, there ain't no justice in you walkin' out of this place, let alone to a reception like that!"  
  
Gambit's red-on-black eyes narrowed and he pressed his lips together in a thin line that meant he was for once biting his tongue. Blaze smiled and squeezed his hand, slyly offering a single pack of cards.  
  
**Merci, mon Petite. **  
  
** You're welcome, Ami. **  
  
O'Malley's eye seemed to pop out on stalks as Gambit turned on him, card glowing orange in his fingers. There was a dull whistling sound in the air that O'Malley couldn't place, but it sent shivers up his spine. Blaze leant back on the car, knowing the sound of Gambit's power, filling the card with explosive energy.  
  
"I had enough, O'Malley" The Cajun snarled, richly accented voice ringing around the parking lot. "You start treatin' those prisoners better, or Gambit gonna make you wish you never bin born." Turning and risking a wink at Blaze, she started to open the driver's door.  
  
"And am I supposed to be scared of that, mutant?" O'Malley was braver now Remy's back was turned, and he spat in the Cajun's direction. Quickly Remy spun back onto him, charged card glowing and eyes flashing dangerously.  
  
"You afraid, O'Malley?" Gambit snarled. "You should be." Almost casually he flicked the card in O'Malley's direction. Blaze could see it wasn't meant to do any damage, but O'Malley didn't. With a whistle and a bright explosion, the card sent O'Malley falling backwards. By the time his vision cleared and his heart stopped racing, he was sat on his backside on the parking lot floor, and the car was already leaving. 


	9. Scene 9

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 09  
  
"Nice work, Rem. You scared the pants off that looser!" Blaze smiled, glancing over at her friend as she drove.  
  
"Should 'ave blown his head off." Gambit muttered.  
  
"What, and get yourself locked up again?" Replied Blaze.  
  
For a moment there was silence in the car. Then Gambit spoke again.  
  
"I sorry, Chere. It just not the release day Gambit was hopin' for."  
  
"I know." Blaze checked her mirror again, frowning. "Here," She tossed Remy his trench coat. "Your stick-thing is in the inside breast pocket, and there's cards in all the other pockets too."  
  
"Merci Amie. You look fantastique though. An' the car is somethin' else."  
  
Blaze smiled. "Yeah, its Xavier's. I think he has it just to look at, I found it in the back of the garage doing nothing. Just listen to that engine..." She revved the car slightly, but eyed the mirrors carefully as she did.  
  
"Somethin' wrong, Amie?"  
  
"Looks like we're not going to get to drink the champagne I brought just yet, Remy. I think we are being followed..."  
  
"Laura," Blaze flinched as he used her real name. "Jus' stay calm. It gonna be okay." Gambit adjusted the passenger side mirror so that he could see the driver of the car behind. "You recognise either of 'em?" He asked as the woman driver said something to her younger male passenger.  
  
"No." Blaze shook her head. "I can try loosing them."  
  
"Okay Laura, but carefully."  
  
She swerved to take a late exit off the highway, at the same time glad of the powerful car under her and hoping that their followers had got too close to react to the turning. It didn't pay off, the blue Lotus Elise behind swung into view again.  
  
"They're still with us, Gambit." Panic started to creep into Blaze's voice.  
  
"It okay, you doin' fine." Checking his mirror again Gambit wished he were driving.  
  
**You want me to stop so you can take over? **  
  
**Sorry, Chere. **  
  
The car behind maintained its distance even as Blaze started to put her foot down.  
  
"Just relax Laura, don't take risks. Here take the next left an' we try loose 'em again."  
  
Again Blaze turned late into the corner, before accelerating through the back street and turning into an industrial estate rear entrance.  
  
"Oh great! Now I'll never loose them, I hate these places!" She exclaimed. Glancing over at Gambit she saw a wicked glint come into his unusual eyes.  
  
"Pull over."  
  
"What, are you totally insane? You want to looking for trouble?"  
  
"One woman an' one lil' boy. We can take 'em Chere. Just stop the car."  
  
"Alright, but I think you are loosing your marbles Remy." The car started to slow, but suddenly Blaze swore vehemently. "There's another one!"  
  
From nowhere a black BMW M5 appeared, tires screeching, driven by a hairy fanged mutant who somewhat resembled Wolverine. There were other people in the back of the vehicle too, but Blaze couldn't make them out as the new car pulled in behind the blue Lotus. They raced out across an open stretch of concrete, engines roaring. In front of the three cars, now edging side by side, the industrial buildings formed an unnatural funnel. Entering between them it was like the sun had been eclipsed, darkness loomed in and Blaze was blinded by the sudden difference in the light. She could only hope that the drivers in the cars either side of her were equally blinded as she raced on.  
  
The funnel created by the buildings ended in a wire mesh fence. The speedometer touched ninety-five as Blaze crashed Xavier's beloved car through the wire. Next to her, Gambit said nothing, but Blaze heard his intake of breath, felt his adrenaline pumping along with her own. She broke hard for the next corner, not even looking back to see if the other cars had made it. Turning right and right again, she was through the main gate of the industrial complex, chimneys pumping out noxious smoke high above them, security guards waving their arms and shouting as Blaze and Gambit sped by. If they could, they would keep this chase away from the streets as long as possible. Let the security guards call the police; they would deal with them later.  
  
"There!" Shouted Gambit, pointing to an open warehouse door. "Go to ground Blaze!"  
  
She obeyed, swinging the car round. There was no sign of the chasing cars in the mirror; perhaps they had lost them? A blue streak came into view. Reacting automatically Blaze abandoned the idea of hiding and pulled a swift handbrake turn on the asphalt. Now facing the blue Elise she revved the engine. Blaze intended to wait until the Lotus was nearly on them, before accelerating back the way they had come, out the gates and towards the freeway. With any luck the setting sun that was beginning to blind Blaze now would affect the Lotus driver, give them the cover they needed to escape back to Xavier's. With a free hand she pulled on her designer sunglasses, smiling thinly.  
  
With no warning, the Aston Martin's engine cut out, it just died under her. Blaze cried out wordlessly in disappointment. Then, bizarrely the car lifted into the air, slowly at first, then faster. Gambit and Blaze looked at each other, sharing each other's confusion.  
  
"A telekinetic?" Blaze asked as the car began to slowly spin about ten feet above the ground.  
  
"Maybe, don't explain the engine though." Was Remy's reply as he braced himself with his hands on the dash. The car span faster and faster, jerking up and down. Blaze found herself clutching the wheel harder and harder. "You think they want us out, Chere?"  
  
"Could be." Blaze couldn't see anymore, things were moving to quickly. The world span about them in a myriad of pretty colours and blurred shapes. "Its like being drunk without the fun part! I've had enough of this ride, you getting off too Rem?"  
  
His answer was the passenger door opening and the Cajun disappearing to the ground. Blaze did the same, dropping cat-like to land on her feet, one palm to the ground that had been twelve feet below.  
  
"Well, well." The strange woman who had been driving the first car said sarcastically, walking towards Blaze and Gambit with her young companion. "I never expected you to give up so easily. Very intelligent of you both."  
  
"Who are you?" Gambit challenged. "Why you followin' us?" Already a card was in his hand, the static of his brewing power making the hairs on the back of Blaze's neck stand on end. In answer the woman started to change, skin and clothes rippling and turning blue. "Mystique!"  
  
Behind them a growl rumbled low, whilst the blond young man flicked a lighter in his fingers, smiling at Blaze. Way above, the Aston Martin flew majestically to sit on a warehouse roof.  
  
"We only want to buy some information, Blaze. Information only you have."  
  
"You can't buy me, Mystique, you've nothing I want." Blaze tensed, palms closed ready for the imminent attack.  
  
"Oh no?" Mystique asked in her rich choir of voices. "How about your lives in our hands?" 


	10. Scene 10

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 10  
  
At the cue from Mystique, a blast of fire from Pyro sent Gambit back- flipping backwards. With a wave of her hand, Blaze deflected Pyro's blast back towards him. At the same time, Sabretooth's fist connected hard with Gambit's jaw, sending the Cajun sprawling to the floor. Mystique stood back, saving her energy, as Pyro closed on Blaze frowning and flicking his lighter. Remy sprang back on his feet, shaking his head before charging and releasing card after card, pelting Sabretooth with a barrage of explosions, driving him back and making him shield his eyes.  
  
Again Pyro tried to blast Blaze with waves of fire. But again Blaze simply raised a hand, letting the flames run around her, turning his uncontrolled blasts into delicate fireballs and lobbing them back at him. With a roar of frustration Pyro abandoned this obviously failing tactic and tried to tackle Blaze to the ground. Almost in slow motion, Blaze jumped straight up above his clumsy run. As he charged underneath her, she somersaulted in the air and used the force of her fire, rather than the fire itself, to knock him to the ground. Mystique actually laughed as Blaze finished Pyro off with a blow to his head, knocking him out cold.  
  
Gambit had Sabretooth pinned back, snarling, but he wasn't causing any damage. But then surely someone so animal, so like Wolverine, would loathe fire like nothing else. With this brainwave Blaze brought her right arm back behind her, before throwing forward a whip of fire that seared Sabretooth's flank making him roar in pain. The flames wrapped around the huge, hairy man like the very tarmac he stood on was on fire. Blaze made sure her cage of flames weren't likely to consume him before turning back to Mystique and Gambit.  
  
"You are a fool, Gambit. You could have joined our brotherhood. Instead you cavort with a hoodlum who is consumed by her power, and controlled by Xavier."  
  
"Who kicked your lil' friends' butts like she's already kicked yours, Mystique!" Remy spat. A car door slammed behind them and Blaze suddenly screamed. In the instant when Gambit tried to turn to help her, pain and confusion tore through his mind like a flash flood. At the same time, Mystique threw herself through the air, kicking his chest, pelting him with close body blows. Somehow he managed to reach inside his coat pocket, pulled out his extendable pole and flicked the button that made it slide into action. With a thrust he knocked Mystique away. Shaking his head to clear it he tried to drive her away from where Blaze lay fitting on the floor. Sabretooth roared his delight as Blaze's fires were extinguished. Charging forwards he tackled Gambit to the floor, repeatedly bashing his forehead against the ground until blood ran and Mystique ordered him to stop. Gambit was unconscious. Mystique looked round.  
  
Pyro still lay on the ground, but he was coming around. Sabretooth crouched over Gambit like a lion over a kill. Mystique did not know if the Cajun were alive or not, but she had not taken his rejection well. She had no plans for him to leave this place. Magneto stood with pride and composure overlooking the scene. In one hand he carried his helmet that protected his mind from invasion by telepaths. The other hand rested on the shoulder of a small black boy. The child was transfixed, staring down on the fitting Blaze with unseeing eyes, a look of horrific pleasure on his face. Mystique gave an involuntary shudder.  
  
Away in the starless dark of the depths of her mind, Blaze sought shelter from her helpless body, and the evil presence that rifled through her mind and memories with no regard and horrid pleasure. In helplessness she cried out, reaching for Remy. But he wasn't there; the link was gone. Now more terrified than ever she could only form one word.  
  
**XAVIER!!! **  
  
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In his mansion, Professor Charles Xavier was almost overcome by the terror behind the voice that called out to him. He scrambled his X-Men quickly, deeming to go himself to Cerebro, not knowing how much time Blaze might have left...  
  
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Far away in the Black Forest of Germany, the Vixen-wolf who hunted with the Wolverine lifted her snout to the wind, hearing the mental cry of her pack- sister so far away. Shape shifting possibly faster than she had ever done before, she called the Wolverine to her telepathically as she did. Time for fun was over, it was time to go home, they were needed...  
  
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"You have the information?" Mystique asked Magneto. The older man pulled his hand hesitantly from the shoulder of the young boy, and pulled on his telepath-blocking helmet, meeting Mystique's eyes as he did so. If Mystique didn't know better, she'd think Magneto actually looked afraid.  
  
"I have what we came for. Leave them, lets go."  
  
"But..."  
  
"You have had your revenge Mystique. Trust me, letting them live right now is far worse than killing them quickly." Magneto looked down at the boy and indicated he should go back to the car. The child was becoming very dangerous, too dangerous. Magneto was ever grateful for the helmet he wore now. Otherwise the child would know that tonight would be the last time he fell asleep...  
  
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"A kid? A kid did this? And Sabretooth?" Wolverine roared his hatred as his adimantium claws slid through his hands.  
  
"Quiet Logan, they need rest, not you shouting and bawling." Dr Ilehana Xavier glanced over at Logan, placing her stethoscope down on the infirmary's stainless steel counter. There was real fear in the Professor's daughter's eyes that made Logan almost long for Vixen to be the type of woman he could put his arms around to comfort. Instead he did as he was told, and let his claws retract.  
  
"This scares you, don't it?" He asked quietly, watching her eyes.  
  
"Yes." For a moment then there was silence, apart from the gentle 'beep, beep' of the various monitors.  
  
"We need to get to the briefing." Vixen finally said. "They've waited long enough for us to get here already."  
  
"Will they be alright?" Wolverine asked the Doctor.  
  
"I don't know." Ilehana looked at each of her patients, both in comas, both so ill. "Gambit may have a chance, but Blaze..." 


	11. Scene 11

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 11  
  
"They followed Blaze and Gambit from the prison, finally cornering them on the industrial estate..." Professor Charles Xavier addressed his X-Men soberly. He was met by equally solemn expressions; pale faces and worried eyes. Nobody interrupted him. Rogue was even visibly fighting tears. "Magneto used an untrained but powerful telepath to invade Blaze's mind. Her connection to Gambit left him too vulnerable to attack. That either of them has survived can only suggest that Magneto found what he wanted. I'm afraid I have no idea what that might be."  
  
"I do," Scott piped up from the back of the room. "Information on the mutation accelerator. Blaze had been into Jacobi's systems, she'd remember the entire program. Anything Mystique didn't get, they've tried to take from Blaze."  
  
"I fear you might be right Scott," Xavier replied. "And to get that information Magneto has used a small boy, a deaf mute named August King, to rifle with rough child's hands through Blaze's mind. This time I fear Magneto has gone too far..."  
  
"So we must rescue the boy, then, yes?" Nightcrawler asked.  
  
"No!" Spat Vixen, adamantly. "The boy is evil! He didn't even try to contain his power. He forced his way through Blaze's mind, ripping into her, prying into her most private thoughts. He violated her conscious, and he enjoyed doing it. If Blaze ever wakes up, as her doctor I can't guarantee that he hasn't irreparably damaged her mind."  
  
"I do not think it will be something we have to deal with. Eric is not stupid, he knows by now this child is too dangerous." Xavier shivered at the thought of those cold prying hands reaching past Blaze, trying to grope and grasp at him. Even now, on the edge of his consciousness Xavier could feel the boy prowling, looking for a way past his walls. He couldn't let his barriers slip for a second, but Xavier was more worried for his daughter than himself. The strain of having to keep August King's mind as far away as possible was telling visibly on Ilehana's face. He couldn't blame Blaze for crying out clumsily to both Xaviers, but he hoped Ilehana was stronger than the boy, for all of their sakes.  
  
**I'll be okay Dad. ** Even her telepathic voice sounded strained. **Logan gives me his strength. **  
  
With a grateful smile at the Wolverine, who looked slightly abashed as he realised Ilehana had told her father of his generous offer, the Professor continued his briefing.  
  
"The mutation accelerator is a different prospect. Not only will innocent mutants lose their lives in the perfection of the machine, but the powers Magneto and his brotherhood could gain may cause endless suffering. We cannot allow such a weapon to persist." For a moment Xavier paused, allowing the X-Men to take in his words before continuing.  
  
"Using Cerebro I have tracked the brotherhood to this location here." Xavier tapped on the projected map, pointing to an exclusive development out in the countryside. Someone, possibly Bobby, whistled appreciatively under his breath, that was an expensive spot for a secret lair. "Scott will lead a team into Magneto's laboratory and destroy not only the machine, but also any records alluding to it. Ilehana, Storm, I want you both to stay here, with the nature of Blaze and Gambit's injuries I don't want them left without medical supervision. Other than that, you will all leave first thing in the morning."  
  
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Magneto watched on CCTV as Mystique almost hypnotically finished imputing her commands into the mainframe that controlled the mutation accelerator. He himself understood it all now, how the basic mechanism of injecting certain unstable compounds into certain parts of the body could manipulate a mutant's already unbalanced DNA into doing strange and wonderful new things. He knew that these compounds had to be administered with such accuracy that both the structure of the machine, and the computer program that controlled the process had to be spot on. Even then, the process was very risky. Blaze's memory had been full of the gruesome death of an unknown amphibious mutant on Jacobi's machine; the female had literally turned grey, before exploding cell by cell, turning inside out all over the lab. But for some reason, Magneto was sure his machine would work better.  
  
On the cold, metallic floor the small boy, August King, played contentedly with the metal marbles that Magneto was fond of setting swinging above his desk. August was seeing if he could use the marbles to bowl over a very expensive side table topped with a priceless Ming Dynasty vase. Hastily Magneto plucked the marbles out of the boy's sweaty hands and into his desk draw with barely a pulse of power. August looked up at Magneto with an awestruck, greedy glance. Magneto frowned underneath his helmet, he knew well that the only reason August would tolerate working for him was that he longed to get under the helmet and explore Magneto's own mind. That could never happen, and Magneto wasn't about to wear this helmet all of the time.  
  
"Time for bed, August." He said; knowing full well that if the boy couldn't hear him, he could accurately lip-read. Unable to respond August simply clambered to his feet and began trotting off down the luxury hallway. Mystique certainly had fitted this place out suitably ready for Magneto's arrival. No doubt Charles was already plotting somewhere to ruin his plans, but he would deal with the X-Men when he needed to.  
  
The telepath tucked up in a giant bed, Magneto silently passed the boy a glass of milk. For a moment August sniffed hesitantly at the liquid, and Magneto's heart pounded harder; what if the boy realised there was something wrong. But the moment passed, and the glass was emptied. Suddenly very weary, the boy fell heavily on his pillows....  
  
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Charles Xavier felt the weight lift from his mind like nothing he had ever felt before. Whilst guilt overwhelmed him that he had sat back whilst his old friend Eric killed a child, he could not deny the relief he felt from those prying, grubby fingers. Across the room, curled up as a wolf nose to tail in front of the fire, Ilehana evidently un-tensed in her sleep. Finally perhaps both of them could relax.... 


	12. Scene 12

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 12  
  
"You laughed, didn't you?" Pyro asked Mystique in a peeved voice as he stood leaning against the doorframe like a true truculent teenager. Mystique didn't even bother to look up; this conversation had been a long time coming between Magneto's young recruit and herself.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Why? What's so funny? Did you only take me along the other day so I could get beat up by some girl?"  
  
"Yes." Mystique finally gave him her full attention. "You have to understand, John, that we are trying to teach you a valuable lesson here. No matter how fantastic you think you are, there will always be somebody better with your own special gift than you. In your case, Blaze is far more powerful with her fire than you are, for now at least."  
  
"If I'm so useless why do you keep me around here? Why don't I just go sulking back to Xavier's?" He didn't try to hide the anger in his voice. "You set me up and you admit it, what kind of a brotherhood is this?"  
  
"A brotherhood where we can show you how no matter what the adversity, there will always be a way to improve the situation. That was the most important lesson Magneto has ever taught me, and now we pass it on to you." She was away with the computer-fairies again, punching the keyboard like there was no tomorrow. If she didn't get these files secured, and the X-Men arrived, there would be no tomorrow for this latest plan of Magneto's.  
  
"You mean, like that machine? If I were to use it, I might become the most powerful mutant with fire?"  
  
"Perhaps, perhaps not. We wont know until you try it." She had him now, she was sure of it. Pyro had been nothing but a hindrance to the mutation accelerator project since he'd arrived to help her. All those morals Xavier had corrupted him with made him hesitant to try new things. It had been Magneto's idea to bribe the boy with power to turn him into a test subject, one of the first of Magneto's planned super-mutant army. But Mystique had known exactly how to get the cocky youth to want that power so badly. As Pyro left the room frowning, Mystique pondered how a short sighted, petty human crime lord such as Jacobi could have understood mutants so well that he knew most would do anything to further their own powers. Now Magneto could bring those early, hesitant plans of Jacobi's into true fruition, build an army with which to liberate all of mutant-kind.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Crush, my dear mutant-brother!" Magneto put down his cup of tea with slight regret and welcomed the mutant Mystique ushered into the breakfast room with a smile. He was briefly amazed at the size of the all-muscle mutant, before wondering just what the mutation accelerator would do to improve the younger man. He wondered that often these days, flights of fancy he supposed that made Mystique mistress of telekinesis or Sabretooth capable of charming anyone into anything... He doubted he'd ever bother with the thing himself, he was quite well endowed with powers; it was power itself that he craved now.  
  
A scant half hour later, Magneto sat in the observation area as Mystique lashed Crush to the operating table and double-checked the flow rates of the tubes of isotopes. Nobody else was present, or even knew about this first test. The chances of this first experiment working were slim. Magneto wished there were another way to test the machine, but Mystique assured him that there was not. With the flick of a button on the complex control panel, the powerful motor whirred into life. Oh well, too late to worry now.  
  
Suddenly Crush cried out, Magneto glanced worriedly at his schematic display, but it seemed only to be the multitude of needles that had penetrated the mutant's body. The display changed again as the different fluids started their way from flasks under the table, through tubes and into Crush's body. Crush shut his eyes in fear as two giant mechanical arms reached out over him to inject more chemicals to more precise regions of his anatomy. The contents of the flasks dwindled slowly, Crush appeared to have passed out, and then Mystique cried out.  
  
"Look! It's working!" She pointed to the mutant's already think-set neck, which was now ballooning with new muscle tissue, new blood vessels, and a fine coating of pale purple hairs. As Magnetos watched in awe, Crush began to sprout a fine down of purple all over his face, arms, neck and chest. Muscle bloomed everywhere, the already huge man was visibly growing, DNA in hyper drive. But also the man didn't look so much like a man anymore, his face was changing. Nose elongated, became a snout over powerful hyena jaws. His name had never seemed more apt.  
  
"No! Wait!" Magneto shouted, noticing blood dripping from Crush's ear just as a monitor started bleeping. "Something is wrong!"  
  
"His brainwaves have dropped right down, there's a blood clot on the brain!" Mystique ran from one monitor to another, trying to stop the machine quick enough. Magneto raised a hand and jammed the metal pumps. But it was already too late, the monitors flat lined, blood poured from every orifice of Crush, nose, ears, mouth. Muscle, newly grown now collapsed in on itself, as did his face. Soon there was nothing that would have been recognisable as Crush left on the table. He was dead.  
  
"Get rid of this." Magneto ordered, disgusted. "And prepare for another test. Make it slower, less accelerant over a longer period of time. Adjust for the next subject's relative body mass too, and prep them too. I will be in my office."  
  
With that he stormed out, frustrated. So close, so very close...  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Keep her steady Rogue, you're doing well." Cyclops praised his young co- pilot at the helm of the Blackbird. They were fast approaching Magneto's newest lair and Scott was convinced their arrival would be expected. Expected meant heavily guarded, possible casualties. Meant he needed his mind on formulating a precise plan, which was why he was glad Rogue had really improved her flying skills under his tuition.  
  
In the back, Wolverine fumbled annoyed with the collar on his black X-Men uniform. Nothin' changed, not really anyway. Nightcrawler appeared to be meditating, eyes closed and face calm. Bobby tapped his fingertips impatiently on the seat in front of him, keeping one careful eye on Cyclops and Rogue. Content as he could be, Xavier backed out of the minds of his X- Men. He trusted them to do what they were trained for, and he would help them if he could. Somehow, the Professor had a feeling that today would be a very long day. 


	13. Scene 13

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome! Also a note to two of my lecture buddies of the last three years, if you ever open a posh restaurant together and name it after yourselves just remember I thought of it first, so I want a free meal at least!  
  
Scene 13  
  
"You really are sure you can handle this, Logan?" Scott questioned the older mutant yet again. The Wolverine wondered if Cyc knew how annoying he was being? The only conclusion he could make was probably...  
  
"Yeah yeah. You'll go in and distract 'em all. I go in and find this machine, wreck it, and put this here CD into the computer to give Mystique's whole system a super bug. Okay?"  
  
"Technically, it's called a virus, but that's close enough." Cyclops reached out to take the controls of the jet as Wolverine rolled his eyes and grated his teeth in the back. "Right Rogue lets take her in gently."  
  
"You've never managed to land this hunk gently yet, Cyclops, what's changed this time?" Scott refused to rise to Wolverine's comment, whilst Nightcrawler and Iceman braced themselves for landing.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Not so much later, with Rogue, Bobby, Nightcrawler and Cyclops keeping Magneto, Mystique and Pyro busy, Wolverine hunted through the elaborate and lavish corridors of Magneto's newest lair. He sure could get used to luxury like this... Just where did Magneto get the money for a place like this anyway, wasn't he supposed to be the bad guy?  
  
With an almost elegant swipe of his adimantium claws, Wolverine dismantled another wall-based sensor. If Magneto realised there had been five people not four on that plane, he'd halt Wolverine's progress with a mere wave of his hand. Literally. Logan grimaced as he explored, there was always someone who thinks they can control you. But not today Magneto, not today.  
  
Suddenly behind a sliding metal door Logan came upon the last thing he expected. A small crying child. A small black boy he recognised.  
  
"Hey, aren't you...?" Wolverine began to ask, before changing his question. "Why aren't you reading my mind?"  
  
August King sat on the metallic floor, tears running down his face and a look of pure malice in his eyes. He stuck his tongue out at Wolverine and turned his back.  
  
"Fair enough." Logan shrugged and went back out into the corridor, closing the door behind him. "I just thought you were dead that's all."  
  
**It appears Magneto has simply drained August of his telepathic powers, Logan. Much better than killing him I will admit, but it is worrying where such a process has arisen from....** Professor Xavier's voice sounded in Logan's head.  
  
"If I see anything, Professor, I'll let you know. The others doing okay?"  
  
**I believe so. Also, behind the bookcase on the right is a passageway that will take you where you want to go, though it is booby-trapped. Good luck Logan. **  
  
"Thanks." Wolverine grunted, extending his claws, flexing his muscles and slicing through the wooden bookcase until an adimantium door was revealed underneath. Perplexed Logan looked round, and spotted a pointless-looking light switch to his left. Flicking it, the secret door slid open easily. "Oh, well." Logan shrugged, stepping over the broken shards of wood and into the dark tunnel.  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
"Pyro! Stop them!" Mystique cried out as she lay on her belly on the floor after a blast from Cyclops had hit her full on. Her associate hesitated before obliging to blast his old classmates with tongues of fire. But Bobby had played this game before, unflinching he froze the flames that approached him and Rogue. Magneto grimly twisted his hand in Scott's direction, and pinned his head against the wall with his metal-containing visor. From nowhere Nightcrawler kicked Magneto in the back of the head, releasing Scott from his hold and causing Pyro to almost singe Magneto as he tried to get at Nightcrawler. Rogue raced in then, grabbing Pyro with her bare hands, reluctantly using her vampire-like powers on her old friend....  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
In quiet of the mansion, Storm uneasily looked out of the window. Left behind in case Ilehana needed her nursing skills, her mind was with her friends as they fought against Magneto. Suddenly there was a blur down the path outside, and back again in only a fraction of a minute. A knock on the door was the fast-running child, come to bring Storm a letter he'd gotten off a strange man at the gate. Dismissing the child, Storm looked out of the window, trying to see if the person was still there. There was nobody.  
  
Instead she turned her attention to the letter. It was quite thick, and addressed to her. She opened it carefully, just in case. The note that fell out was on good quality paper, handwritten and most importantly signed.  
  
Storm,  
  
I know you have been wondering a lot lately about yourself, about your powers, and about the rings you and Blaze have been given. I hope I can answer some of your questions, if you will agree to meet with me. As a gesture of good will, please accept these vials. They contain chemicals created by my company to lessen the effects of a telepathic attack on the brain. They will help Blaze for certain, and possibly also her Cajun friend.  
  
If they work, you can meet me at the new designer restaurant 'Ellen&Buckley' at eight O'clock tomorrow night. You and Blaze should come alone; I do not trust any of the other X-Men. Then I can try to help you both, and buy you dinner of course.  
  
Yours faithfully, and eagerly awaiting our meeting,  
  
Garthen Doking.  
  
She didn't know the name, but perhaps the Professor would. She'd ask him later. Right now she needed Ilehana to investigate these miracle cures. The two glass test tubes glinted as she looked at them in her palm. She didn't know why, but something told her that perhaps all wasn't lost for Blaze and Gambit... 


	14. Scene 14

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 14  
  
Booby-traps. Right. Logan paced down the pitch-black corridor slowly, edging his feet forward, feeling the gradient steepen, and all the time sniffing, listening. Like he was supposed to be Indiana Jones or something...  
  
He stepped on something. A pressure pad under his left foot triggered a sudden change in the air to his right. He reacted instinctively, slicing through the air with his claws. To his surprise a long, thin metallic knife fell clattering to the floor beneath his claw's indestructible blow. What was the catch? For a minute he stood still, the only sound his own breathing in the dark.  
  
Slowly he itched forward again. His night vision may be good, but it wasn't perfect. Ilehana could have done this better than him; she'd have morphed into a cat or something else with good eyesight... With an electronic pulsing sound a laser cannon swung round through the corridor. Wolverine ducked and rolled, hearing rather than seeing the beam follow his movements. With a roar he jumped up above the beam, slashing at where he judged the cannon to be. He judged right, barely. The cannon faltered, then dropped at a bizarre angle, still emitting as it dangled, half cut through by Wolverine's claws.  
  
With a second blow Logan finished off the cannon, before stopping to poke his leg, wincing. The laser had seared his flesh on his trailing leg. Already his fantastic self-healing ability was counter-acting the blow, but it still hurt. And ahead a motorised mechanism promised more fun.  
  
"Arargh!" The Wolverine charged down the last stretch of corridor, using the gradient to build his momentum, claws ready. Ducking under the first swing of the rotating blades he stuck his claws in the wall above the next blade. Reaching down he wrenched out the mechanism. Ducking under another, dying swing he gave the other wall the same treatment and was able to bob and roll again under the blades with little difficulty. Indiana Jones eat your heart out!  
  
Ahead, framed by clinical, white light was a doorway. Brushing fingertips against the wall he found the switch to activate the adimantium panel. For a moment he was blinded as the door swung open. Then he saw it, Magneto's newest experiment, and strapped to it ready to be tested on was...  
  
"Oh great! Don't tell me I gotta rescue you?"  
  
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"This is a sample of spinal fluid I took from Blaze when I got here." Ilehana indicated to her father that he look down the microscope at the stained fluid in the sample below. Besides it she had spectro-analysis and chromatography to back up her claims. There were no miracles in Dr Xavier's lab. "The dark purple stains indicate a neurotoxin, produced by Blaze's own cells, cause presumably by August King's tapering with her mind. This neurotoxin is what has put Blaze in this coma, it is degrading her nerve structure, slowing her impulses and rendering her unable to react to stimuli."  
  
"I understand the principle," Charles Xavier looked up at his daughter from the microscope lens. "And that up until now there has been little you could do."  
  
"That's right." Ilehana went to change the microscope slide. "The neurotoxin is a complex structure produced by her own cells, not even her own immune system can recognise it as damaging to fight it off. But this is what happened when I introduced a small amount, only ten micrometers, of Storm's miracle cure to a sample."  
  
The Professor looked again down the microscope, squinting for a moment until his eyes focused. What he saw amazed him.  
  
"There is none left!" And he was right; the purple dye was virtually non- existant. Ilehana smiled generously at her father.  
  
"The test tube contained a virus, genetically engineered to combat that specific neurotoxin. More than that, the membrane signature of the virus is so similar to the neurotoxin that it triggers the attacking immune system to not only fight off the virus, but also the neurotoxin itself. This is the work of a highly specialised team, with access to huge quantities of data and funding. I couldn't have come up with an antidote this ingenious in a million years!"  
  
"Will it help Blaze?" The Professor asked, bringing his daughter out of her mood of marvelling at scientific ingenuity.  
  
"It will stop any more damage being caused, yes. But as for the damage already done, that is beyond the scope of the virus. It will take time, but with luck not too many of her nerves will have been damaged, so she should recover full health."  
  
"And Gambit?"  
  
"Ah, well." Ilehana brought out Gambit's most recent brain scan. "Gambit's injury is more natural. Yes, he has the neurotoxin in his extracellular fluid as well, but more worrying to me is the physical damage caused by repeated blows to the skull. Fortunately he bled out rather than accumulate blood around the brain in a pressure-building bruise. After I administer the virus, Blaze should come round in the next twenty-four hours. Gambit may still not come round; it depends on his will to fight the injury he has sustained. There is little else I can do."  
  
"Alright." Xavier started for the door. "Do as you think best, Doctor. But Ilehana, don't take it too hard if Gambit doesn't make it. We all know you have done your best. No hospital could have treated him better."  
  
"Thanks Dad." Ilehana watched him leave, wondering what she had done to deserve a father so caring...  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx "Who.. Whose there?" The pale-skinned, blue-haired woman strapped tightly to the mutation accelerator cried out as Wolverine entered the room. With a few paces he was by her bedside, claws bared.  
  
"I can't believe I'm doing this." He muttered, slicing the tethers that held her as she looked up at him in a daze.  
  
"I know you." Electra muttered as Wolverine removed her bodily from the table. "I've met you before."  
  
"Yeah, you've tried to kill me before." He deposited her by the doorway and turned back to the deadly machine. It was remarkably easy to smash up Mystique's months of work. A flick of his claws there, a grunt-powered swipe here... Soon the mutation accelerator was in pieces on the floor, and Wolverine could turn to the bank of computer terminals in the far wall of the lab.  
  
The CD slid easily, almost happily into the nearest disk drive. Logan stood back as its contents were scanned, and the computer screen began to turn to gibberish. As did the next, and the next, until every screen in the room had random letters and numbers falling over the screen, wiping Mystique's entire system clean. Well, thought Logan, serves 'em right for not making this more difficult.  
  
"Okay, time to get you out of here." He said to Electra, but she had passed out. "I don't know what Magneto's given you, kid, but I hope its good. This is gonna be a bumpy ride." He slung her weight over his shoulder and headed back up the corridor, leaving the single CD corrupting the computer mainframe. "On our way, Cyclops. Get the 'bird ready."  
  
"No problem!" Cyclops' voice came back clear over the radio. "But who's with you?" 


	15. Scene 15

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome! Thank you to author Tamora Pierce, for her inspiring 'Circle of Magic' quartet, and for all the stories of Tortall that made me want to write in the first place. Also thanks to author and friend, fellow fanfic-er Corrinth for the all-conquering Trip and Da'Nela mind-bond in the Star Trek Enterprise Lone-Wolf trilogy, sorry I've kinda nicked it!  
  
Scene 15  
  
"Just put her on that bed, Logan, I'll be with you in a minute or two." Ilehana slowly pierced the seal on the bag of the intravenous drip that ran into Blaze's arm with a syringe of the miracle virus. This process would administer the cure for the neurotoxin slow enough for Blaze's body to cope with the change. Withdrawing the needle the rubber seal closed behind it, and Vixen could turn to assess her newest patient. It was times like this, rushed off her feet, when she felt as keenly as most of them the loss of Dr Jean Grey. Not that she'd ever liked the woman.  
  
Electra lay pale and still on the bed where Wolverine had deposited her. She'd been unconscious the whole way back from Magneto's mansion, apart form when she had briefly regained consciousness just long enough to vomit all over Kurt.  
  
"You found her strapped to the mutation accelerator?" Vixen asked as she put on her stethoscope and started to examine the blue-haired female.  
  
"Yeah." Logan stood back from the bed, arms crossed over his muscular chest, frowning slightly as he watched the Professor's daughter work. Behind him, Storm came into the room with elegant but purposeful strides.  
  
"You called, Ilehana?" Vixen didn't even look up from her examination of Electra.  
  
"Yes, there's a syringe ready on the work surface, and the second vial. Give Gambit 10ml exactly through the intravenous drip please. And monitor them both, closely. Any change, call me, okay Ororo?" Ilehana glanced up worriedly at Wolverine. "Help me turn her over, Logan?"  
  
Storm did as she was told; overwhelmed by the concern that Ilehana was experiencing about Electra. The black woman frowned slightly, brows knitting together as she measured precisely the amount of the mystery virus for Gambit. She could only hope it would work.  
  
"Damn it!" Vixen swore, making Storm turn around. "We are too late!"  
  
With rough fingers Wolverine touched the holes in the back of Electra's outfit. Holes that went deep inside her and leaked green-blue fluid. Holes that now he looked were matched by pinpricks around her face and on her chest and arms. How could he not have noticed this before? Magneto had done the unforgivable, tried to tamper with a mutant's DNA, with her powers, he'd already used his mutation accelerator...  
  
A sudden cough, followed by a splutter and a choke made all three X-Men turn from Electra. Blaze was turning an interesting shade of blue. Rushing over, Storm and Vixen raced to clear her airway, easing her breathing as the redhead regained a semblance of consciousness.  
  
"Gambit..." She gasped, eyes roving unseeing around the medical room. A shudder passed through her, Logan grabbed her shoulders to offer her support. Unthinking, Storm glanced to the next bed, where the Cajun still didn't move, eyes closed and face pale, monitors bleeping around him.  
  
**Don't tell her. ** Ilehana demanded telepathically. **She can't know, not yet. If she knows how close he is to leaving, she wont want to come back herself. **  
  
Wolverine and Storm both nodded their agreement. They supported Blaze so she could breathe properly as Vixen went to a cabinet and returned with a new syringe and potion-bottle.  
  
"Blaze..." She said, softer than Wolverine had ever heard her speak. "You are safe at the mansion. You are going to get better. I am going to give you a drug to make you sleep now. When you wake up, everything will be okay."  
  
"Remy..." Blaze whispered. "I can't find him...."  
  
"What does she mean?" Storm questioned the others. Wolverine shook his head.  
  
"She means telepathically, through that bizarre bond they have." Ilehana said as she directed the needle into the junction where drip met Blaze's arm. "I just hope she'll forgive me..."  
  
In Blaze's mind, a familiar face grinned at her. He was all right then. Almost silently he spoke to her.  
  
**Sleep now, chere. Talk later. **  
  
Blaze closed her eyes, leaning back and drifting into more healthy, natural healing sleep.  
  
"What did you do?" Logan asked as he eased Blaze back to lie down.  
  
"I gave her Gambit." Vixen sighed, walking over to the Cajun, whose condition was still unchanged. "She's too out of it to know it was only me..."  
  
Wolverine's hand rested on Vixen's shoulder, a reassuring presence. Storm averted her eyes, going instead to inspect Electra for herself. Ilehana risked a half-hearted smile.  
  
"You did good, kid. Blaze wont hold it against you." For a second she let him support her, she was so tired. Then she moved away, as she always did, back to her newest patient. Logan shook his head, time for a cold shower and a cigar. Without saying goodbye, he left.  
  
"What about Electra?" Storm asked quietly.  
  
"There's nothing I can do for her." Ilehana acknowledged stiffly, hating to be unable to help. "I'll give her drugs to help her sleep through whatever changes Magneto has wreaked on her. If she survives, at least she's in the right place, with plenty of help to learn to control her powers again. But it's a big 'if'."  
  
Storm could feel Vixen's exhaustion; it ran like rivulets through the air towards her.  
  
"Take a break." Storm ordered her friend. "I can handle this for a while. Go get some rest."  
  
Ilehana smiled gratefully at Ororo, checked Blaze was truly sleeping now, and departed. 


	16. Scene 16

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 16  
  
In an elaborate mansion, in a respectable district, a young mutant with the power to control fire who had once been told he was a god employed a sweeping brush with lethargic movements. This just wasn't fair. Why was he stuck cleaning this place up after the fight with the X-Men, Rogue hadn't sucked any of the others dry of their powers. Even thinking of his old friend hurt like she was touching him again. She'd looked good; Bobby was a lucky guy. Raised voices echoed down the passageway, what were they fighting about his time?  
  
"Mystique I thought I could trust you better that that. Your anti-virus software was abysmal. Everything we have been working on has been lost because you failed to back up your work to a separate system. What exactly have you been doing for the past five months?" The critical tone of Magneto's voice covered his true disappointment and anger. How could the shape shifter make such beginners errors? Had she not been in this game long enough?  
  
"For the last five months I have been working single-handedly to meet your impossible deadlines! On top of that you know I am working on projects other than the mutation accelerator, projects to which you yourself have assigned me, projects nobody else can work on!" Mystique did not try and hide her fury behind sarcasm. Not waiting for Magneto's reply and ignoring Pyro's hurt looks, she walked straight out the door, slamming it so hard the draft it created scattered all of Pyro's neat sweepings back over the marble floor.  
  
"Women, my boy." Magneto confided in John. "Whatever happens, don't forget that you can't trust a single one of them."  
  
"What about Electra?" Pyro asked.  
  
"She will do as well at the Xavier School as she would have here, I suppose." Magneto spoke like a martyr for his cause. "But if she survives, she will know who to thank..."  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx With a groan and a shiver like someone had stepped on her grave, Blaze awoke from her drug-induced sleep slowly. The cold steel of the infirmary met her waking eyes as it had done the first time she came to the Xavier mansion. Maybe the Professor would let her decorate in here? It really could do with warming up a little...  
  
Around her, monitors upon monitors bleeped and buzzed. Her arm was itchy where the needle of the drip fed into her blood. Her neck was stiff from lying in the same position for too long. But most of all, her head and spine throbbed with every beat of her pulse. There were spots on the edge of her vision, pesky purple ones that flashed in the corner of her eye. Absently she wondered if she could torch them, even balled up her hand ready to unleash a fireball, before she realised she was not alone.  
  
"Hey, Blaze? You awake?" Scott, she sighed before answering in a croaky voice.  
  
"No." He only smiled, purple dots dancing round his head in a bizarre halo.  
  
"Great. Its good to have you back with us." There was genuine relief in his voice.  
  
"How long?" Blaze squinted as she tried to wake up and get rid of the floating dots.  
  
"A week." He put a cool hand to her hot forehead. "Relax, I'll get Ilehana and tell her you're awake."  
  
"No need." A female voice, brushed with a touch of the wild. Vixen came to stand next to Cyclops, smiling first at her childhood friend before taking Blaze's pulse. "You had us worried there for a while, firefly."  
  
Blaze closed her eyes calmly; she must have been here too long, at the school, if now she was getting nicknames. Then sudden guilt and fear washed over her and she was wide-awake. Sitting up so abruptly she made herself dizzy Blaze cried out.  
  
"Gambit! Where is he? Is he okay?"  
  
"He's here and he's safe." Ilehana's voice was guarded, clear of all emotion.  
  
"Don't worry about him now," Scott filled in, steadying Blaze by taking her hand. "You have to get yourself better first."  
  
With a shallow nod Blaze agreed, but wondered about all the screens that had been erected around her bed. What was it the X-Men didn't want her to see?  
  
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"She's awake?" Storm asked as Ilehana and Scott came into Xavier's large, sumptuous office with looks of tired triumph on their faces.  
  
"Yes." The Professor answered for them as they sat down heavily with Logan, Nightcrawler and Storm. "But she still worries more about Gambit than her own health?"  
  
"Can you do something Dad?" Ilehana asked. "She wont get better if all she does is stress about him."  
  
"You think her mind could withstand my assistance?" Xavier asked his daughter, "So soon after August's attack?"  
  
"I'm sure she can, or I wouldn't ask. She's a tough customer, our Blaze, and her super-fast metabolism is healing the damage to her mind quicker than I would have thought possible."  
  
"Alright." Xavier sighed. "I don't like doing it, but I was brought up to always do as the Doctor orders, even when she is your own daughter." He smiled at Ilehana. "Scott, could you take the staff meeting for me? And Kurt, don't forget to raise any concerns about Michael's discipline with the other teachers." The blue mutant blushed slightly, now he had no choice but to speak out, even if he didn't feel brave enough. The Professor nodded to his staff, his X-Men, and left the room.  
  
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"She's asleep again." Ilehana told her father as they entered the infirmary. "It's the best thing for her, but she should be alright."  
  
"If she stops worrying about Gambit." The Professor finished for his daughter. "This will only be temporary, hopefully Gambit will begin to recover before very long, and I can remove the effect."  
  
"And if he doesn't recover?" Ilehana wanted to know.  
  
"I will remove the blockade anyway, as soon as she is better." He didn't have to explain to Vixen why, only through their grief and remembrance was her mother still with them both. Carefully Xavier placed his fingertips around Blaze's skull, not quiet touching. Sneakily, feeling like a coward, he put out tendrils of himself through Blaze's mind as she slept. Finding every place in the darkness where Blaze reached out for her old friend, her best friend Gambit, he closed them off to her. When she awoke, she would not even notice that these pockets of memories and feeling had even been here, as he wrapped them now in telepathic threads of adimantium. 


	17. Scene 17

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 17  
  
"Blaze?" She came round again quicker that time, to find Storm leaning over the bed with an anxious look on her face.  
  
"Hello." The redhead smiled, seeing Ororo smile back, relieved.  
  
"Blaze I need a favour. I don't know if Ilehana has told you about the cure you were given?"  
  
"She has." Blaze sighed. "And about the note that came with it. You want me to come with you, meet this Garthen Doking?" Storm nodded.  
  
"The Professor doesn't want me going alone, but this man wont meet me if I bring another X-Man, and..."  
  
"You have to hear what he says." Blaze finished the sentence for her friend. Quickly she sat up, swinging her legs round and on to the floor. As earlier, when Ilehana had woken her to carry out some tests, Blaze felt slightly numb, like something important was missing at the back of her mind. Not able to place the sensation she resigned herself and got up. "How long till we meet him?"  
  
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Cyclops drove the two women to the restaurant, before taking his car and hiding two blocks away in case he was needed. He didn't think he would be, both girls could easily take care of themselves.  
  
The doorman on the swish designer eating spot smiled graciously as Blaze and Storm approached him, opening the door without asking their names. In the queue roped off to one side, those waiting offered snide comments that the two mutants could just walk in like that. Blaze and Storm exchanged smiles, it was about time they got priority treatment.  
  
A scantily clad waitress seated the women in a comfortable corner by the bar, bringing both of them champagne without asking. With a sigh, Blaze relaxed back against the red suede seat, and sipped the champagne. Even in the subdued lighting of the restaurant, to Storm Blaze looked pale and ill.  
  
Storm glanced up as a shadow fell over them. The waitress had returned to usher them through to the main dining hall. This room was civilised where the bar had been bright and cheerful, but no less glamorous. The chairs and tables were black and gothic looking, covered in pristine white tablecloths and on a cold slate floor. Crystal chandlers were mirrored by crystal baubles in the centre of each table, giving out soft pastel coloured light. Most of the tables were full already; restaurant staff were rushed off their feet. But on the far side of the room, in a prime position just far enough away from the other diners, a man in a suit sat calmly at a table set for three.  
  
Garthen Doking was a tall man, though not well muscled. His jaw line was too sharp for classic good looks, but his regal nose sat well between startling blue eyes. Eyes made all the more startling for his flawless tanned skin and dark hair. Blaze reckoned his age between thirty and thirty five years. Her years as a thief had taught her well that that suit was much more expensive than it appeared at first glance, the material was rich quality and the stitching perfect. The watch on his wrist was worth more than her entire outfit, and the easy way he tipped the waitress enough to make her eyes bugle made Blaze's fingers itch to get near enough to lift his wallet.  
  
"Ladies." Garthen's accent was an easy American one, relaxed and in his natural environment. He indicated that they be seated and take up their menus. "It's good to see you both. You are feeling better I trust Blaze?"  
  
"Yes, thank you." The Englishwoman smiled at him, whatever happened tonight, this was the man who had saved her life. Eyeing the menu she whistled appreciatively at the prices.  
  
"Oh, don't fret about the cost, ladies. The chance to entertain to such glamorous guests is well worth the expense." Garthen smiled again, flashing brilliant white teeth as he included both of them in his actions. Storm smiled too, though she wasn't quite sure why.  
  
"Why have you asked us here?" She asked in her soft, elegant accent. "What can you tell us about these rings?"  
  
"In time, in time, Storm, please. I find it is best not to think on an empty stomach. You are ready to order, ladies?" He caught a waiter's attention with a slight wave of his hand. This is a man who is used to being served without question, Storm realised. The question is what does he want of Blaze and I?  
  
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Professor Xavier put down the book he was reading and watched the slightly oversized cat sitting on his windowsill, staring off into the night. Her tail swished gently, muscles in her neck and back rippling against grey tabby fur, every inch of her a huntress.  
  
**Do you want me to open the window for you, cat? Or shall I open a tin of sardines for you? Maybe I should find some yarn for you to play with? ** The humour in his voice made the cat turn round to him, orange eyes blazing.  
  
**Dad, that's not funny. You could just...** With a wail Ilehana the cat fell backwards off the windowsill. Starting his wheelchair towards his daughter Xavier was overtook by a wave of sharp pain, followed by disturbing quiet, a scream pulled from his lips too. The cat landed on her feet, then slipped and collapsed sideways. Xavier fell unconscious in his wheelchair.  
  
Bobby and Rogue were first to the office, along with Colossus and Jubilee. Bobby ran to Xavier's side, checking his pulse and breathing as Rogue and the others stood shocked in the doorway. In a flash like anger personified Wolverine appeared dressed in grey training gear, claws unsheathed. He rushed past where Bobby was talking gently to the Professor as the older man came round, scooping up the cat in his arms.  
  
"A cat?" Jubilee muttered to Colossus and Rogue. "I didn't know he had a cat."  
  
"Vixen." Rogue filled in, almost under her breath, trying to deny the twinge of jealousy she felt at the tender way Wolverine placed the waking cat on her feet on the Professor's desk. True to instinct, the first thing Ilehana-Cat did when put down was sit and shakily begin to wash herself, glaring slightly at Logan for showing too much affection.  
  
"You okay Professor?" Rogue asked, taking her place by Bobby's side, concern obvious on her face. The obviously shaken man reached out and stroked his daughter's cat-fur absently, as if to reassure himself that she was still there. She looked up at him soulfully, unable to respond.  
  
"Our telepathy." He slurred through unwilling lips. "Our telepathic powers have been drained."  
  
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The main course arrived almost as soon as their starters had been cleared. The food here looked to Blaze too good to eat, but as always her stomach got the better of her artistic taste and she tucked in whole-heartedly. Storm was a little more refined, and much less trusting. Garthen smiled and chatted about unimportant things, the stock market, places he'd visited that Blaze could respond to with acknowledgements that she knew them too. At no point did Blaze mention Gambit, but Storm knew that he must have been with her in some of these places at least. As the meal went on, and Blaze seemed still not to remember Gambit, Storm marvelled for one at Xavier's power. But also it troubled her, and she hoped dearly that Xavier would not be to long before he removed the inhibitions from Blaze's mind. 


	18. Scene 18

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome! Special thanks to Knight of Avlee for late night conversations concerning an adequate bad guy, legends and myths. I hope this story lives up to your (not so high?) expectations!  
  
Scene 18  
  
It was not until the main course was finished and the table cleared that Garthen turned the conversation adeptly to something of interest to Storm.  
  
"I see you are both wearing the rings you were gifted? I have never seen them up close before. May I see them?"  
  
Hesitantly both young women removed the gold rings they wore on their thumbs and placed them side by side on the table. They seemed to glow in each other's presence, enchanted by the dancing light of the room.  
  
"Ah," Garthen exclaimed. "Remarkable craftsmanship, don't you think?" Again he smiled, a smile that made both Blaze and Storm glow as if he praised both them and their rings. Something inside Storm made her think perhaps he was praising them both. "I must apologise for the over zealous letters that accompanied them. I don't believe there was any need to be that dramatic, but here we are."  
  
Both young women shifted impatiently in their seats as their desserts were served, ebony chocolate on ivory ice cream, spun sugar and imported tropical summer fruits. More champagne was offered and though both women thought to decline, Garthen had already purchased the whole bottle and was refilling their glasses himself.  
  
"No doubt you are wondering who I am. I confess I am not much of a public figure, but you may have heard of my company, GD Pharmaceuticals?"  
  
"Yes," Blaze replied, a little too quickly. "You have a laboratory in Geneva..."  
  
"Indeed," Answered Garthen, raising an eyebrow "One that suffered a mild break-in a few years ago, but we are here as friends so such topics will be discarded."  
  
Storm smiled as Blaze blushed and relaxed. Garthen encouraged them both to tuck into their deserts as he sipped his champagne before continuing.  
  
"Actually we have branch laboratories all over the civilised world, often in association with leading universities. I am the founder, owner and managing director of the international corporation."  
  
"Which explains how you came by the cure for Blaze's illness." Storm said, "But not why you were so willing to give it to us."  
  
"I suppose my saying I hate to see a beautiful young woman suffer would not quite suffice, no matter how true?" Blaze blushed again as Storm smiled and shook her head. "Well then, I should also tell you that I have interests outside of the world of pharmaceuticals. In my spare time, I enjoy the study of ancient history, amongst other activities.  
  
"In my studies I recently came across a particularly interesting legend. Further to that, I found that there is a group of well-educated and intelligent people who work in a small society trying to find the truth behind this same legend. These people, the Amentha, have some very interesting ideas about the occurrence of this next step in human evolution. It is they who sent you these rings, rings taken from a secret cave that even I do not know the location of. Despite the nature of the letters, these Amentha wish you two no harm, they seek only the truth about a legend that has captivated all of us, myself included. They would very much like to meet the two of you."  
  
"You are not a member of this group?" Storm asked, placing her spoon down and eying Garthen's clear blue eyes carefully.  
  
"No," He replied, "I am simply another interested party, acting as an impartial go-between. Before you decline the offer, let me explain further what it entails. Come with me, tonight. I have a car waiting. I will take you to a neutral location, my own house, where you may stay as long as you wish. There I can introduce you to a few high members of the Amentha, and to their legend and ideas. There I can give you both the answers you need about your new empathic abilities, about the rings, about why you have been chosen out of all the mutants over all the world."  
  
Refusal was an automatic response set in both young women's minds. They needed to talk to the Professor. They needed to know better what they were getting into. But surely, they both thought as if on the same frequency, the Professor would have contacted us if he had any doubts? Their empathic feelings showed Garthen not as a man to be feared, he really did seem to mean only to be friendly. And weren't they strong enough to take care of themselves? As both looked into Garthen's bright blue eyes, all thoughts of refusal slowly began to evaporate from their consciousness.  
  
"Also, ladies, I should tell you; there are two other young ladies, also carrying Amentha rings, who are at my home waiting to meet you both..."  
  
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"It's a virus." Ilehana spoke croakily; feeling more alone than she ever had done before. "Easily transmitted through water, air or any one of a million other ways. I've checked Rogue, Bobby and Kurt and you all have it too, but in you all it's dormant, inactive. There didn't seem any point to take blood from you, Logan."  
  
"Fine by me," The short, muscular man acknowledged. "I don't like needles anyway."  
  
"So, why is it dormant in us, but active in you and the Professor, Ilehana?" Kurt asked with his head tilted to one side in a look of confusion.  
  
"It's genetically engineered, just like the cure I gave to Blaze and Gambit. But this time, its very different. The virus has a membrane structure like a key, only locking on to Xavier DNA. It has been engineered to only affect Dad and I." Ilehana sighed, meeting her Father's anxious eyes. "In us, it attacks our DNA, using our own cells as a means of replication. It's working fast, secreting chemicals that are inhibiting our telepathic abilities in the same way that August King's attack made Blaze and Gambit's cells secrete a damaging neurotoxin that their own body couldn't fight off. This shouldn't put us in a coma though, I'm glad to say. Somebody just wants us, or maybe just you Dad, out of the way for a while."  
  
"Only for a while?" Xavier asked his daughter, his voice sounding hollow and loud after all the other voices that he heard in his mind were suddenly silenced.  
  
"Eventually," She cautioned, "Though I don't know how long, our own immune systems should start to kick in. Until then, there is nothing I can do."  
  
"Well, at least we know one thing." Kurt chimed in, trying to alleviate some of the doom and gloom in the medical room. "None of us three can be your long lost relatives, eh Professor? Surely that's good news?"  
  
Xavier smiled softly, wondering why he felt it was ironic that Kurt talked of long lost relatives. Then as though awakened from a dream he asked,  
  
"Has anyone heard from Scott, Storm or Blaze yet?" 


	19. Scene 19

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 19  
  
Always professional, Cyclops didn't even have the car radio on as he whiled away the time until Blaze and Storm came back. He did, however keep a mournful eye on the bar across the street. It'd been too long since he'd had a drink... An image of Jean, frowning ever so slightly in disapproval crossed his mind's eye. Did he need a drink to remember her, or a drink to forget? Whichever way, he admitted, now wasn't the time for it. Storm and Blaze wouldn't be long now, surely?  
  
A sleek black limo crept slowly past the end of the street on which he was parked, heading towards the restaurant. The roads were icy, all the cars drove slowly, but something about this limo intrigued Scott. It'd be interesting to see whom Storm and Blaze had been rubbing elbows with. Citing a sudden crick in his neck as a good enough reason for a walk, he climbed out of his car and headed towards the restaurant, hands in his pocket and visor glinting in the streetlights.  
  
The limo pulled up outside the restaurant, annoying even more the sulky people who queued in the icy cold just for the chance to eat at this new celebrity hotspot. The driver emerged, full outfitted in a smart black suit and chauffeur's hat, to open the back door. Only when the door was opened did the three figures in the doorway of the restaurant start towards the car. The first was a well-dressed man, tall and skinny. Cyclops didn't recognise him. The second was a woman, as was the third. There was something familiar about their shapes as they walked towards the car, living silhouettes against the lights of the restaurant. Scott frowned, then realised how stupid he was! That's Storm and Blaze!  
  
As soon as he thought it, they had started climbing into the limo. He ran towards them, feet skidding on the icy sidewalk. The limo's engine rumbled into life. He had just a second to get there before it pulled away. What was going on? Why hadn't they...  
  
Thwack! Scott's feet slid from under him seemingly in slow motion. He could feel himself falling, slipping on the ice before he was actually down. Then he was on his back, staring up at the streetlight and beyond that the stars. He felt more than heard the car pull away, already hearing Wolverine's incredulous voice ringing in his ears...  
  
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"You did what?" Logan knew the situation was serious, but the thought of Cyclops falling flat on his back in front of a whole bunch of folks and him not being there to laugh was just not fair! Ilehana too, thought she was ashen faced from the loss of her power, was grinning openly at her childhood buddy.  
  
"But, Storm, and Blaze too, they seem okay when you saw them?" Kurt couldn't keep the fear out of his so innocent voice. Storm, who'd offered him friendship, trust and belief, was gone? Just like that? And Blaze, so much peace and warmth did that young woman have for someone whose life had been so hard. Nightcrawler found her a pleasure to be around, especially when meditating together as they often did. Why would they just leave like this?  
  
"Yeah, Kurt they seemed fine. They got in the car on their own, nobody forced 'em that I could see." Couldn't the others see that this hurt him too? thought Scott snidely.  
  
Professor Charles Xavier looked from the face of one X-Man to another, hating that he had to wonder what they were feeling. He despised the fact that he could not just reach out and touch Blaze and Storm; make sure that they were all right. It had been a long time since such a dramatic night had not included him using Cerebro. He missed that rush the machine gave him like Scott missed drinking himself senseless and Logan missed the freedom of the wild. But now wasn't the time for feeling sorry for himself.  
  
"There is nothing we can do." Xavier conceded gently. "We have no way of knowing where Storm and Blaze have gone, but I know we can trust them to contact us if they need us." He looked round, taking in the anxious faces of Scott, Bobby, Rogue, Kurt, Ilehana and even Logan. He put as much confidence in his voice as he could muster. "Storm and Blaze can protect themselves."  
  
A hoarse voice, male and accented, spoke from the doorway behind the X-Men that sat in Xavier's office.  
  
"What can Blaze protect herself from?"  
  
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Gambit opened his eyes slowly, waiting for the world to stop spinning. If he took the worse hangover he had ever had, and multiplied it by a hundred he wasn't even close to how rough and sore he felt right now. His mouth felt furry and off, his joints ached, and his head pounded like there was a Mardi Gras going on in there.  
  
Eventually he was able to sit up and check out the room around him. It looked like a medical room, stainless steel, beds, cloth screens and random machinery. With a loathing of doctors he viciously plucked the sensors and needles out of his flesh, wincing as he did. Gambit rolled back his shoulders, assessing the damage to his body. Nothing that wouldn't heal was his conclusion as he planted bare feet on the cold floor.  
  
There didn't seem to be anyone about as he peered around the screens. Another bed, but vacant this time with the machines switched off. The ones that had been attached to Gambit now beeped frantically, thinking he had flat-lined. He switched them off too. Behind another screen was another bed, holding a patient he recognised instantly. Electra didn't look so good, even pastier than usual. Nothing he could do though...  
  
Making his way through the maze of corridors that made up the underground lair of the X-Men, somehow he found the lift up to the school. Though the hallway was pitch black, raised voices directed him to a door in a panelled wall; he'd been here before at least.  
  
He let himself in just as Xavier was speaking to the X-Men, assuring them that Storm and Blaze could protect themselves. Gambit didn't like the uncertainty in the Professor's usually calm voice. What was going on without Gambit now? Where was Blaze?  
  
"What can Blaze protect herself from?"  
  
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"Gambit!" The tall, blonde haired, blue-grey eyed woman who cried out was Xavier's daughter, the doctor-shape-shifter. Ilehana, he remembered. "You're not supposed to be up and about, you've been really sick..."  
  
"You can nurse Gambit better anytime, belle, jus' not right now okay?" Gambit interrupted, he didn't want to know just how sick he'd been. "What's goin' on, Professor?"  
  
"Have a seat, Gambit." The Professor indicated to a free chair, which Remy gratefully accepted. "We need to fill you in..."  
  
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It took a while, but Xavier didn't leave out any details, even those about the block he had put on Blaze to keep her from worrying about Gambit when she should be getting herself better, and that now his powers were affected he couldn't remove the barrier. Instinctively Remy shuddered, when would telepaths learn to keep their minds to themselves. He knew Xavier only meant to help, but now look what had happened. Blaze might never even recognise him again... The idea made Gambit feel physically sick. But he kept his opinions to himself, for now at least.  
  
"So what we gonna do 'bout this then, Professor? We jus' gonna leave it or we gonna try an' find them?"  
  
"The only thing that we know is the name of the man Storm and Blaze were meeting. And that it was about these mysterious rings they have been given. Scott, could you run an extensive background check again on Garthen Doking? I know you struggled to find anything the first time, but he must exist somewhere." Xavier turned to Nightcrawler. "Kurt, gather Storm and Blaze's research on the rings from Blaze's room. Take Gambit with you, and bring whatever you can find back to my office. There may be clues in those notes as to what is going on."  
  
"Yes, Professor." The blue mutant poofed! into a standing position on the floor from his perch on the top of a cabinet. Gambit shook his head, amused despite himself. Leaving the room with Nightcrawler, he risked a brief wink at Ilehana, grinning as Wolverine almost snarled at him. This was much better than being unconscious... 


	20. Scene 20

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 20  
  
"It's locked." Nightcrawler stated as he tried the door handle to Blaze's room with a three-fingered hand.  
  
"No problem." Replied Gambit, reaching out with a single finger, intending to blow the door open. From somewhere a hand grabbed him, and then nothingness was around him. Before he could cry out, his feet were on solid ground again and he could breathe. Nightcrawler grinned at him.  
  
"I know."  
  
"How can you do that without seein' where you is goin'?" Remy asked in awe.  
  
"I can't, normally, unless I have been the place many times before. Else I may end up in a wall..." Kurt shrugged and went to switch on the light in the room.  
  
"You spent much time in Blaze's room eh Ami?" Gambit couldn't keep the jealous snipe from his voice. Kurt was eager to clarify things.  
  
"We mediate, she and I and sometimes Storm. We are friends." The light came on like a dagger to Gambit's eyes, a sword-blow to his chest. The room could not have been more Blaze's. The bed was unmade, pointless junk, books and writing implements were scattered everywhere and the curtains billowed in the wind from the open window. Lost in some obscure memory he couldn't quite place Gambit jumped as Nightcrawler slammed the open window shut.  
  
"A bit chilly in here, you think?"  
  
"Yeah." Gambit took a breath. "What we lookin' for?"  
  
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The limo pulled up in front of a palace-like residence at about eleven pm. The stylish, twisting steps to the front door were ice-covered and treacherous, until Blaze raised a hand, issuing tiny dancing fireballs to melt the frozen water. There was no way she was going to try walking up those steps in these stupid shoes whilst it was icy.  
  
Inside everything was warm, welcoming and well lit. When Storm complimented Garthen on such a lovely house, he came over all coy and blamed his wonderful housekeeper.  
  
"You're not married, Garthen?" Blaze inquired with all the tack of a raging inferno. "I'm sure you were wearing a ring."  
  
"My wife died." Garthen offered apologetically. "Three years ago." He sighed.  
  
"We're sorry," Storm gave Blaze a look that would make hell freeze over. "We didn't mean to pry."  
  
"Of course not." Garthen issued his charming smile again. "Please, make yourselves at home..."  
  
"Garthen!" A shrill shriek like the accelerated crunch of a glacier came rushing down the stairs, followed by an Asian girl dressed head to foot in shades of blue. "You're back! Did you bring them?"  
  
"Storm, Blaze," Garthen smiled at his newest guests as the Asian girl approached to swing on his arm like she owned him, or he owned her. "May I have the pleasure of introducing Tsunami? Sun, this is Blaze and Storm."  
  
"Can I see your rings? Please? See, here's mine, it's a sapphire..."  
  
"Please forgive Tsunami," a new female voice like the sedate grumble of before a landslide sounded from a nearby doorway. "She's a little... bubbly." Garthen smiled at the newcomer before introducing her.  
  
"And this is Gaia, whose ring-stone is an emerald. Now, if you don't mind ladies, I will leave you to get acquainted." And with that he departed.  
  
"Let me guess," Blaze asked Tsunami, who was a good five inches shorter than the red-head, with big blue-green eyes and short-cropped, spiky dark hair that framed her elfin face. "You have water-type powers?"  
  
"No," Tsunami giggled, "I am water." With a ripple of almost, but not quite, visible power, the Asian young woman became transparent blue and fluidic. It lasted only a second or two, before she was as solid as before and sweating from the effort. "Well, almost. I'm practicing though."  
  
"What do you know about the rings?" Gaia ignored Tsunami impassively. Storm could only liken their relationship to siblings, with Tsunami obviously the younger. Clearly they had both been here some time. "Or the Amentha?" Gaia was obviously of Mexican origins, tall and slender with long, brown hair worked in plaits, and there was a greenish tint to her skin tone. The sombre look to her pointed to someone who took their time to consider and think about things. Whereas Tsunami would rush headlong into anything, Gaia would not be so easily caught out. Graciously Gaia indicated that they go into a nearby drawing room and sit down. Blaze and Storm exchanged glances before agreeing.  
  
"I am afraid we don't know anything, really." Storm admitted, "We would appreciate anything you can tell us."  
  
"I'm sorry, we don't know anything either." Tsunami looked quite sorrowful. "Garthen won't tell us hardly anything, said it would be better if we waited for you two."  
  
"How long have you been here?" Storm asked.  
  
"Now that you ask, I'm not really sure..." Gaia winced as if trying to remember. "Once Tsunami got here, there didn't seem any point in leaving, so I stopped worrying about it. And now you are both here, maybe at last we will get some answers..." 


	21. Scene 21

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 21  
  
It was the early hours of the morning when Blaze left her allotted suite of rooms and headed down the hall to Storm's quarters. It seemed Garthen had been planning for their arrival for some time. The wardrobes were full of clothes in the right sizes, even if all the clothes were the same colour; frost-white for Storm and to Blaze's obvious dismay flame-red for her. Her actual comment had been something along the lines of "Eugh! I can't wear red! I look like a man-obsessed librarian!" Storm had only replied that perhaps it was in case the Amentha struggled to remember who was who to which Blaze had snorted her laughter.  
  
Now, finally, the whole house was silent and with any luck Storm and Blaze could talk without being overheard. Blaze didn't have to wonder if Storm was still awake, she could almost feel the other X-Man on the edge of her senses. In fact, that was one of the things they had to talk about. Ever since they had arrived, or more precisely met the other two ring-carriers, their senses had gone into overdrive. Where as before feelings both young women had been experiencing only vague empathic, now every change of mood in the house was proclaimed as if by a man with a loudspeaker.  
  
The door to Storm's sitting room opened silently, revealing Ororo Munroe sat artistically in an oversized chair still dressed and wide awake. Blaze came and sat besides her friend, after shutting the door without a whisper of a sound.  
  
"You look worried, Storm."  
  
"I am. The Professor still hasn't tried to get in touch. I keep thinking maybe something's wrong." Ororo shook her head slightly as if trying to drive those thoughts away.  
  
"What could be wrong?" Blaze asked. "Its more likely that something's right. If there were a problem, someone would have contacted us by now, if not the Professor then Vixen. It's far more probable that the X-Men trust us to do our job and find out what's going on here. And that they don't want to put us in danger by getting involved."  
  
"Do you think we are in danger?" Blaze frowned slightly, was Storm scared? She certainly couldn't detect any fear from her friend the way she had from the woman on the plane.  
  
"I'm not sure. I know I can't feel anybody wishing us harm. Garthen seems harmless, if a little eccentric. And the other girls..."  
  
"I know," Storm interrupted, the tone of her voice the only clue to the soul-searching she was undertaking. "Its like we already met or something. But its strange because..."  
  
"Because neither of us felt that same recognition when we first met." Storm smiled at her friend who finished the sentence for her. Blaze continued. "The question is how far do you want to take this? How long do you want to stay?"  
  
"We still have no answers." Ororo considered. "Lets get some sleep, and see what tomorrow brings..."  
  
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In a briefing room way below the school that once again began morning lessons, Gambit worked alone scouring through various notebooks and scribbles retrieved from Blaze's room. Nightcrawler had been helping until he was due to take his Religious Studies class. Cyclops too had been working as the Professor asked on trying to track down the elusive Garthen Doking. His conclusion as he left to take a class was that the man simply didn't exist.  
  
Whilst reading and re-reading Blaze's puzzling notes on ancient writings, lost tombs and untranslatable runes, Gambit heard the door swoosh open and someone knock gently on the wall. He turned to see the young brunette with the white streaks to her hair that had been with Blaze when the X-Men raided Jacobi's lair five months ago. She smiled, offering a tray of soda bottles and various snacks. Under her arm she carried several textbooks and a ream of paper.  
  
"Hey, I'm Rogue. I thought maybe you could use some company?"  
  
"Gambit knows who y'are, chère." The Cajun returned her smile and accepted a bottle of soda. "But y'sure your lil' friends wont miss you in class, if you locked away down here with me?"  
  
"I got study period," She replied sassily, making herself at home by another workstation across the room. "An' an eight page essay from Cyclops on military aircraft to write. He says if I wanna fly the blackbird, I gotta know where it came from........." She shrugged and sat down with her back to the Cajun. She really had no idea why she was here. She could easily have written the essay in her room, or the rec. room, or anywhere. She didn't have to be here. And who was this Cajun anyway to make a big deal out of her still having lessons at the school? He wasn't that much older than her, was he? Feeling his unusual eyes on the back of her neck, she opened her first textbook and commented "So what's a swamp rat like you doin' with a classy lady like Blaze anyhow?"  
  
"Swamp rat?" She could hear the laughter in his voice. "Gambit kinda like that chère. But I wanna know what a pretty gal like you is doin' in a place like this?" Rogue could tell he was avoiding talking about Blaze, but she didn't blame him.  
  
"Its a long story." She replied, not sure that she wanted to talk about her arrival at Xavier's School either.  
  
"It gonna be a long mornin'........." Was Gambit's only reply. With a sigh Rogue obliged, launching into her own story as she worked on Cyclops' killer essay.  
  
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A while later, Gambit put down the notebook he had been scanning and turned to his companion. Rogue took a last swig of rather flat soda and started to scoop up her work, her story told. As she stood, Gambit stood too and crossed the room to her.  
  
"So, what would happen if Gambit touched you?" He asked quietly, eyes narrow and dark. Rogue met his gaze with slight fear she couldn't place and a flush of excitement.  
  
"Don't. I don't wanna hurt you." Her sweet southern tones barely made a whisper. He ignored her warning, reaching out with a finger to brush a strand of white hair away from her face. Suddenly she could feel her power kick in, drawing Gambit's energy into herself, dragging his power out of him and into her. He gasped involuntarily, but didn't pull away.  
  
"Rogue, you in here? Wolverine said........." Bobby! Rogue pulled away from Gambit and glanced guiltily towards her boyfriend. Iceman glared at the pair, hurt and anger both equally visible in his expression. Without a seconds warning he was across the room and pushing Gambit manfully away from Rogue, slamming him into the wall. Gambit's head slammed against the plaster, Bobby's fist slammed across the other young man's chin. Rogue screamed for Bobby to stop, but he didn't, he couldn't! The door slid open again and Wolverine was on Bobby in a breath, pulling him away and pinning his struggles.  
  
"If you don't want Ilehana's claws sunk into you, you'll leave the Cajun alone. She's not spent so long patchin' him up for you to go knockin' him down Bobby Drake." With a sudden movement Bobby wrenched himself free of Logan's grip and headed out the door. Rogue instinctively ran after him, calling his name.  
  
"I thought I could trust you, Rogue!" He turned slowly to face her. "But it looks like I was wrong! Its over, just..........stay away from me........." He stalked off like a wounded tiger, crestfallen and broken hearted. Rogue choked back a sob as a strong hand rested on her shoulder, supporting her. Thinking it was Logan; she turned to bury her tearful face in his chest.  
  
"It okay chère," A soft voice, definitely not Wolverine's, comforted her. "There be plenty more rats in the swamp........." Embarrassed by her mistake, Rogue pulled sharply away from Gambit, and ran sobbing down the corridor.  
  
"Well done, Cajun, you aimin' to break all the girl's hearts round here?" Wolverine snarled at Gambit as Rogue disappeared. For once, Gambit couldn't think of a clever reply......... 


	22. Scene 22

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 22  
  
Storm was the last to wake the next morning; she had lain awake for hours after Blaze had left worrying about whether or not to tell her friend what the Professor had done to her memories. Finally she had dozed off still without a conclusion to her qualms. And now she had overslept so long that the other girls were up, washed, dressed, fed and sat in deep discussion in Blaze's room without her. Not that Storm could see them as she went into her en suite bathroom with a towel. But she could feel them, on the edge of her awareness, as if they were stood in the corner of her mind's eye just out of sight. The strange new developments to her powers worried Storm, as they did not seem to worry Blaze too much. She'd had her powers so long, since she was such a small child, and now suddenly they were changing on her. And it wasn't just the occurrence of this telepathy or empathy either. Her power over the weather was growing inside her, fighting to get out all of the time now. It was becoming very hard to remain in control.  
  
Dragging a soft brush through her fine white hair a few times, Storm looked carefully in the mirror. There were bags under her eyes; she looked as though she hadn't slept at all. Sighing she yanked the brush through a particularly tough knot. Without warning, tiny lightning bolts ran over her hair's surface. Frowning at this sudden outburst of her power, Storm pulled the brush away, seeing tiny strands of lightning pull between her hair and the brush. Unnerved she abandoned the brush and patted her now static-y hair back into place with her hands. She hoped Garthen would have answers for them today, Storm really needed to talk to Professor Xavier.  
  
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The Professor sat behind his desk, elbows on the table, and fingers of each hand touching in front of his face. He pursed his lips as he listened to his daughter give her latest report from the infirmary.  
  
"I've had to give Gambit another scan, thanks to Bobby Drake. He's a bit dazed, but otherwise okay. It's a wonder Bobby didn't put him back in a coma, he certainly would have if Logan hadn't arrived just in time..." Xavier didn't need his telepathic powers to understand why Ilehana was so exasperated about the incident that morning. On the one hand, she had worked so hard to get Gambit fit again, as a doctor she felt protective of him. But then again, Ilehana was so compelled by pack-like loyalties; Xavier knew that if she had been in Bobby's position, Gambit would be unlikely to still be breathing. Gambit certainly wasn't making himself any friends around the school at the moment.  
  
"What about Electra?" Charles Xavier changed the subject, then almost wished he hadn't as Ilehana's expression turned dark and disheartened.  
  
"She wont make it." Vixen confirmed. "Her cellular structure is degrading and her electric power levels are off the scale. Her own body can't contain the power she is generating. I don't know how long she's got."  
  
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In his room near the boy's dormitories, Bobby dragged a large holdall sports bag out from under his bed. He'd given up crying, even given up blasting things around the room with his power. The door was frozen shut, his mirror and window shattered at the sudden change in temperature when Bobby had flung angry ice at them too. Shards of glass lay amongst the ice on the carpet, and the cold wind whipped round the room and Bobby like an old friend come to comfort and support him. What was the point in him being here anymore? He had control of his powers like he had never dreamed of when he first arrived at the school. His best friend John had already up and left him without so much as a backwards glance. And now his girlfriend, his confident, his friend Rogue had found somebody else...  
  
It didn't take long to pack what few clothes and trinkets he had. He didn't even bother to put on a coat. What was the point, the cold was his only friend now. Raising a bare hand to the remnants of the window, he smashed out the remaining glass daggers with a fistful of ice. Only then did he climb to sit on the window frame, and with an extended hand create an ice slide all the way down to the ground so far below him. Ducking under the window frame, bag over one shoulder, he planted both feet solidly on the slippery ice and slid gracefully away from the building. It didn't matter where he went. Nobody'd care anyway. Not his Mom, not his Dad, not his brother. Nobody at the school either. Bobby swallowed a sob. He was on his own.  
  
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Finally Storm appeared from her quarters and sat down with Blaze, Tsunami and Gaia. She glanced almost nervously at the other girls, despite Blaze's encouraging smile. Were those vines growing in Gaia's hair? As if to answer her unspoken question, a single clematis-like bud unwound itself from Gaia's sleek brown plait and bloomed soft pink against the chestnut hair. Storm could not help but stare; she'd never seen a power like this before.  
  
Blaze laughed at Storm's expression as the blossom died sullenly as quickly as it had arrived, not betraying that she had been likewise captivated earlier in the day by Gaia's hair decoration. Tsunami smiled too, a small almost shy smile that contradicted her bubbly reaction of the evening before. In a practical tone, Gaia faced Storm to offer an expaination.  
  
"I was just saying to Blaze and Tsunami, I have powers over the earth. I can control its movements, such as earthquakes, landslides and so on... When I was small a landslide nearly crushed my school with thick sludge. I pushed it away, and the school was unharmed. That is when I knew I was a mutant for the first time. But also growing things listen to me, I can speed up or slow down their growth and encourage them in conditions they would not normally like." Gaia smiled, stroking her left plait with long, graceful fingers. "Climbers are my favourites though, such thoughtful plants..."  
  
"Why are you here, at Garthen's house?" Storm asked carefully, not wanting to offend.  
  
"For the same reasons Blaze says the two of you are. We, Tsunami and I, received mysterious rings with cryptic notes. I even tried, as Blaze has, to find out where the rings came from..."  
  
"It was Gaia, an ancient history student, who was in Egypt just before me." Blaze interrupted. "She recognised the runes too, but couldn't break the code."  
  
"But," continued Gaia with a sideways glance for ironic permission from Blaze, "Not long after Garthen contacted me. I agreed to come here for the answers that had eluded me. Tsunami arrived a few days later, but Garthen said he would not continue until all four of us were together."  
  
"But now we are together," finished Tsunami with a wicked grin. "And he has to tell us now, doesn't he?"  
  
"That I do," A voice from the doorframe replied. "And there is no time like the present. Let me tell you girls an ancient legend, passed on by word of mouth since before the great kings of Egypt, from the earliest reaches of the evolution of mankind..." 


	23. Scene 23

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome! Also, my boyfriend was playing Ritchie Sambora very loudly when I was working on certain scenes in this chapter, hence the Bon Jovi references later on, so thanks both to my boyfriend for being an all-round superstar, and also to Bon Jovi for being fantastic!  
  
Scene 23  
  
Garthen Docking seated himself comfortably amidst the four mutant women and smiled his compelling smile at each of them. Slowly, in a singsong voice that was almost hypnotic he began to tell Storm, Blaze, Gaia and Tsunami the story they had been waiting for.  
  
"Once, before there was writing to record these stories, there was a time when man and woman alike did marvellous things, thing that until not so long ago were deemed impossible by modern society. These men and women of early humankind were the heroes, the villains and the Gods of the ordinary folks struggling to survive in a vicious early world. Many of these legends have of course been lost to us, or else changed out of all recognition by time and re-telling. One though has been protected by a secret society, the Amentha, deemed so important and so powerful that members of the Amentha have died to protect their secret, their legend.  
  
"When the cultures of the world were in their earliest stages, the ancient hunter-gatherers first building farming settlements and electing their own warrior-leaders, four girl-children were born to four different peoples. As they grew, the girls gained beauty and intelligence, charm and wit. At an age where each culture allotted adulthood, the four began to show very different traits. They became powerful above and beyond their clan-kindred. The ordinary folk did not know how to react; they despised and worshipped the young women, persecuted and adored them. But, deep inside the women knew they were worthy of more than what their tribes, their families could offer them.  
  
"There came a day when a traveller called on each of the girls, and persuaded each of them in turn to walk with him a while. He told them that they were goddesses, their powers over the elements divine-given to protect and encourage the whole of mankind. The traveller brought them together, and the four became one, knowing each other's thoughts and feeling the emotions of the army the traveller put at their command. In a wave of fire, water, air and earth the four did great deeds and their four civilisations founded great cultures each, one for each element, one for each continent.  
  
"Alas the time came where the four were called back from their seat of power, back to their own homes to rule over those who once had persecuted them. The joining of the elements crumbled and by deceit the four were slain. But it was proclaimed by an ancient wise man that when the time was ready, the wind would change and the cycle would repeat once more. When heroes and Gods were born again in man's flesh, the four dark elements would stride out once more to join the world together."  
  
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With his head throbbing, Gambit popped the two painkillers the doctor had prescribed into his mouth and took a gulp of water. The glass beaker he dumped unrinsed on the work surface in the kitchen. How did Blaze put up with these losers? He'd never admit he felt guilty over Iceman's sudden disappearance, but he didn't need to with the way everyone was reminding him of it everywhere he went in the mansion. Vixen had nearly clawed his eyes out, Xavier had professed to be very disappointed and the only friend he thought he was on the way to making, Rogue, was locked up in her room bawling her eyes out. Still, if Blaze had out up with Gambit for so long she must have the patience of a saint. And if it wasn't for Blaze, he wouldn't be here at all. He didn't want to miss out if the X-men hit on something after he'd left.  
  
In the meantime, everything he'd looked at in Blaze's notes seemed to lead back to this mysterious language. Blaze had called it 'ancient graffiti,' and she'd found different passages on the mummy in France, the tomb in Egypt, and a stone Celtic marker in Ireland. Not as old as the original pieces, but still very old. And, Gambit had to admit, the Professor might have hit on something when he called Remy to his office earlier. Gambit looked down at the heavy book in his hand and wondered what kind of man would have junk like this just sitting around the place. It was titled 'A discussion of languages, writing and words throughout the ancient world; messages in a mysterious time.' Placing it on the kitchen table Gambit shook his head in wonder, eyes narrowing. The author must be one heck of an idiote, coming up with a title like that. From his pocket Gambit pulled out a mobile phone he'd 'borrowed' from Scott Summers earlier and punched in a number.  
  
Outside the kitchen door, Wolverine stood listening intently. The Cajun was up to something and Logan didn't think the Professor would approve. It could even be fun... The Cajun's voice, though lowered for normal ears was loud and clear to Logan's accentuated hearing.  
  
"Salut, Gina. Ce'st Remy." Gambit paused as he listened to the reply. Wolverine wished his hearing was a little better; he couldn't make out who was on the other end of the line.  
  
"Oui, bien. Is Tommy there?" Again a pause, longer this time as Gina trotted off to do Gambit's bidding, what was it with women and this guy? Logan had no time to contemplate this as Gambit spoke again, in English this time.  
  
"Tommy, it Remy. Remember that favour you owe me?" For a second Logan wondered if Tommy remembered or not. "What can you get an ol' friend on a Professor Edward Smythe-Cadding?" Intrigued, Logan risked a brief glance round the door, and saw Gambit stood beside the kitchen table, a finger resting on the face of a big book, just where the author's name would be.  
  
"No I'se not tellin' you why you ole'..." Was that a hint of laughter in Gambit's voice? "Sure, send it all to..."  
  
"Hey Logan you seen my phone anywhere?" Cyclops shouted down the corridor, approaching fast. "I was gonna try Bobby's mobile again... What's up?"  
  
The kitchen door flew opened and a sly-looking Gambit exited, tossing the handset to Cyclops.  
  
"You left it in there, ami. You should take better care of your things, no? And Wolverine?" Gambit grinned at the shorter man, "Don't spy on Gambit, he don't like it much." 


	24. Scene 24

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 24  
  
"How did it go?" The well-dressed, middle-aged woman asked, straightening out her suit jacket and standing as the man entered the room.  
  
"I'm not sure if they want to believe me or not, but that is besides the point. Their heritage and their destiny have been revealed to them, they cannot fight it." Garthen Doking slumped into a heavy chair and put his fingers to his sweaty forehead.  
  
"You should have more faith in the legend, Garthen." Elizabeth Bartholomew quipped back as she fetched a glass of water for the exhausted man. "And have relied on your mutant powers less. This persuasion you employ exhausts you too much."  
  
"And that is why you are Amentha and I am not, Elizabeth." Garthen rebuked the woman. "Until the Dark Elements are ripe for unleashing on the world, I will use every tool available to me, no matter the cost..."  
  
"Then you will be glad to know the final preparations on the arena are completed. Training may begin as soon as you deem fit, traveller." The woman left, closing the door quietly behind her and leaving Garthen to his thoughts.  
  
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Gambit really needed to stop thinking so much. He never had been much good at it. But now his thoughts whirled in circles and troubled his dreams at night. Blaze; disappeared where he couldn't find her or protect her, didn't even know he existed. Rogue; the only X-man who had shown his any real friendship now hated him for driving her boyfriend away. Electra; still an old flame, no matter how they had parted, now lying slowly dying on a slab in the infirmary. Remy hit the button on the lift with a vengeance, Electra would not die alone.  
  
The infirmary was quiet, even the ceaseless monitors bleeped in a subdued tone. The screens that had prevented Blaze from seeing Remy in his illness had been tidied away. Electra lay still on her bed, sheet tucked in tight around her chest and arms hiding the restraints the X-Men had employed to stop her from injuring herself during frequent fits and convulsions. Sat at a desk across the room, Ilehana pulled her long blonde hair back with her fingers and lashed it tight again with a hair tie. The screen in front of her showed the scientific paper she was writing entitled 'Ecology of the Black Forest.' There was no sign she even knew Remy was there.  
  
He went to Electra's bedside, pulling up a chair to sit on silently. Elbows on his knees he touched his fingertips together in front of him and leant back. For a while he just sat there, watching the rhythmic movement of her breathing, the unconscious twitch as her electric power spasmed her muscles, wondering what would have become of himself if he had submitted to Jacobi's offer of use of the mutation accelerator. Did all mutants crave such augmentation of their powers? Did less powerful mutants fear the more powerful in the same way ordinary humans feared all mutants?  
  
A gasp for air broke into Gambit's pensive mood, Electra's blue eyes swung open, unseeing at first then focusing slowly. Unthinking Gambit gasped her reaching hand, and received an electric shock for his trouble. But he didn't let go; instead moving closer so she knew she really wasn't alone.  
  
"'S okay Electra. I'se here."  
  
"Gambit?" She barely whispered his name; her strength was gone. "I'm dying, aren't I?"  
  
"Yes." No point lying to her. She turned her head on the pillow to look at him, blue lightning streaming out behind her to taunt the roof and caress the monitors.  
  
"You will kill the ones who did this to me? Magneto and Mystique. You will fight them?"  
  
"Yeah, sure. Rest now Electra." Maybe he would, someday. Assassinations weren't really his thing, but maybe just this once.  
  
"No." She shook her blue-haired head making sparks fly. "There's something you need to know..." Gambit was filled with dread, why did he have to be the one she gave her deathbed confessions to? Where was the blue elf when you needed a saint? "When Jacobi started building his army, I searched him out... Made myself useful, worked my way into his inner circle... I told him about you, Gambit. I told him you were the best. And... I told him the only way to get you would be to kill Blaze, that she had you under her thumb, that she'd be better off dead."  
  
Remy didn't say anything. He didn't have anything to say. He let Electra's hand fall from his grip. Everything he and Blaze had been through, the attempts on Blaze's life every five minutes, the constant attention from Jacobi's minions... Everything that drove him to hide out in prison so Blaze would be safe... All because of Electra.  
  
"I was hurt, Gambit!" Her voice cracked with pain, husky with the drawing in of death. "You broke my heart when you left me for her. Whatever you two call your relationship, friendship, whatever, it took you away from me... I know that's no excuse...and I am sorry, Remy..." She shut up, breathing heavy, monitors bleeping frantically all around and blue electricity streaking through the air.  
  
"Jennifer." Remy steeled himself and took her hand again, bracing for the electric shock. It didn't come, and in the same instant the monitors toned out her flat line. She was gone. "I'm sorry too..."  
  
Someone put a hand on his shoulder, guiding him away from the bedside. Short moments later, Ilehana turned back to Gambit and sighed.  
  
"Tough luck," There was heavy sympathy in her voice. "C'mon, we could both use a beer." 


	25. Scene 25

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 25  
  
Storm, Blaze, Tsunami and Gaia were all strangely quiet these days. There were a million reasons for them to have left by now, Garthen's mad story being the main one. But somehow not one of them had suggested that they quit while they were ahead. Instead they sat in one or other of their rooms, thoughts echoing silently between them, as though all will they had between them had been sucked dry.  
  
Someone cleared his throat in the doorway to Blaze's sitting room. All four young women looked up at once, as thought the same puppeteer held their strings. Garthen smiled at his young protégées, and they smiled back unthinking. Then as though the sun had come up to banish the dark, they each shook their heads and came back into their own minds a little.  
  
"Ladies, may I introduce you to Professor Elizabeth Bartholomew?" A strange brunette woman entered, as Storm and Blaze both winced at the word 'Professor'. Why did that ring echoes in both their minds? "Elizabeth, meet Storm, Blaze, Gaia and Tsunami, my Dark Elements."  
  
"I'm truly pleased to meet you all." Elizabeth smiled a cruel smile, baring whiter than white teeth. "May I greet you on behalf of the Amentha, and offer you our support for your work."  
  
"Our work?" Gaia had been the most freethinking of the Dark Elements in recent days. Something in her considerate mind still questioned every little thing, keeping the others on the conscious side of brainwashing.  
  
"To join the people of the world together as one under the Dragon King." Elizabeth sounded incredulous. "Has Garthen not told you?"  
  
"Maybe, Garthen's told us a lot of things." Blaze shrugged at the woman apathetically, not able to remember any examples right at that moment. Storm put her fingers to her forehead as though trying very hard to remember something important, or else to fight off a headache.  
  
"Ladies, let us not linger here on such a lovely day. Elizabeth and the other Amentha have a surprise prepared for you. Let us go to the arena."  
  
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The arena was exactly that, a Romanesque amphitheatre in the middle of nowhere. They flew in on Garthen's private helicopter, dropped down out of the deep blue sky into this great stone bowl in the middle of the desert. In the seats all around there were nameless people, the Amentha, thousands of them from all corners of the world.  
  
"These people want to see you use your powers, my Dark Elements." Garthen addressed them. Elizabeth frowned as she saw sweat forming on his brow, he used too much of his power to control them. "In your past lives before I, the traveller, found you, you learned great control over your elemental powers. But now you are reborn, and the elements are not meant to be controlled. Here it is safe for you to loose control, free your souls and become goddesses."  
  
In the stands as if on cue, the crowd pulled on helmets and oxygen tanks, they would take no chances. Elizabeth and Garthen did the same as they walked to the dais at the far side of the arena. The helicopter took off, disappearing over the stands and away. The four young women stood alone and uncertain in the centre of the ring.  
  
**What are we supposed to be doing? ** Blaze's red-hot voice cut through their minds. She was still the best at forming coherent communications with their new telepathic link, though she could not explain why. Storm sometimes thought that she might know, but couldn't quite remember.  
  
**Loosing control. ** Storm's airtight sarcasm replied lightly.  
  
**Against them! ** Tsunami was always the most excitable, but now she seemed exhilarated. Following her mental pointing the other three spun round to see four heavy tanks rolling clumsily towards them, guns ready.  
  
**Leave them to me. ** Gaia replied stoically, holding out her hands and *willing * the dry earth to buckle and surge beneath the tanks' caterpillar tracks. With a groan so deep it was felt rather than heard, the land tilted, rearing up like a bronco horse. The first tank began to slip sideways into its fellow, and the crowd roared all around them.  
  
**Not without me! ** Tsunami didn't need to extend a hand. Turning transparent and fluidic she called the water out of the very ground with a wail like a legendary siren singing sailors to their deaths. It surged in great geysers from the ground, hot and steaming. The first water plume hit a tank square underneath, lifting its still turning caterpillar tracks from the ground beneath. Somehow the men inside got a missile away, before the geyser tipped the tank sideways and onto its roof.  
  
"Gales." Storm whispered as the missile pelted towards her. Suddenly the wind surged, whipping around the arena, blowing up dust and hammering into Tsunami's water columns. The missile was blown off course just enough that it crashed harmlessly into the ground. "Lightning" was the next single word order from the mistress of air. Obedient, clouds gathered and darkened the once clear blue sky. With power enough to destroy a small building, a single lightning bolt came crisp and white from cloud to third tank, blowing it apart before it too could launch a weapon.  
  
Blaze watched amazed as from the now-watered bare earth, tendrils of weeds came clambering over the first tank, wrapping it in a cocoon of green as it tried to drive off the cracked earth Gaia had stranded it on. Exhausted, Tsunami had to let her water columns fade and fall. She collapsed to the ground as the final tank bore down on her. Shouting out, Blaze leapt across the distance between them and stood in front of the water sprite. Flame surged around the red-haired mutant until it was as if she were on fire herself. As the tank drove at her, she did not flinch. It drove straight up to her but she did not move. It went to mow her down like grass in spring, but instead the heat Blaze gave off melted the metal superstructure. Gradually the entire tank turned to molten metal and mangled plating. Both Blaze and Tsunami remained unharmed.  
  
Gasping for air, Blaze slumped to the floor, her clothing in tatters and ringlet hair plastered to her face with sweat and ash. In a second Storm was at her side, whilst Gaia picked up the much smaller Tsunami in her arms and stood her upright.  
  
"Fabulous ladies!" Garthen exclaimed. "But we still have areas to work on. Endurance for one I see, and you Storm barely let yourself go. Now, showers and lunch I think!"  
  
Besides Garthen, Elizabeth shivered with dread for the first time since she had heard of Garthen's finding of these chosen girls. It was one thing to know there were mutants with godlike powers abroad in the world, even to believe, as she did, that some of them may even be gods in their own right. It was quite another she now found to see their raw power with her own eyes, to know what they would be unleashing on the world. And all around, the other Amentha screamed and clamoured for more. Let the world be afraid, for their time had come, and the Dragon King would be proclaimed King of All once more... 


	26. Scene 26

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 26  
  
The well-appointed office was lit only by the dull green glow of the computer screen. A man tapped away on the keyboard, absorbed in his work. He didn't notice the second floor window open from the outside. He only realised he was not alone when the computer's power died mid-sentence. Swearing heatedly he tried to reload the system to rescue his unsaved work, but the power was cut off at the plug socket. A sharp sound, away behind him, made the man stop fretting and begin to panic.  
  
"Who... Whose there?"  
  
"You don't need to know, Professor Edward Smythe-Cadding." The voice was male, American but accented. Professor Smythe-Cadding had been to New Orleans once, with his wife, her idea of course. He began to turn round to see the speaker, but a flash of light hit his beloved computer and blew it apart. Flinching as shards of glass and pieces of motherboard showered around him, Smythe-Cadding stopped moving. "That's better."  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"Depends on how cooperative you are, ami. I may have a lil' job for you."  
  
"I won't work for a thug who breaks into my office! Security will be here in a moment and..."  
  
"I don't think so. Unless you want your wife to see the picture I has."  
  
"What...what pictures?" "First you look at dis for me." Gambit threw a bland cardboard folder onto the desk by the smouldering computer. "Tell me what it means."  
  
For a second or two Smythe-Cadding just stood there, breathing heavily. Then he flicked on a desk light and ran a scared finger along the flap of the folder, flipping it open. He glanced at it sideways, trying to seem non- committal as only guilty men do. Suddenly he exclaimed and sat down again with a thud.  
  
"Where did you get this? Where was it found? This text... I have never seen runic coding so complicated!"  
  
"Where it came from not you concern. Tell me what it says."  
  
"Why should I? Are you some kind of tomb raider? Your kind has robbed the academic world of too many priceless treasures!"  
  
"An' you robbed your wife of her best student. How did a worthless man like you convince a high school cheerleader to have an affair with you anyway? An' under you wife's nose..." Gambit folded his arms across his muscular chest, tapping the other folder he held against his side, a sly smile on his face. He'd find Blaze one way or another. Smythe-Cadding gulped and looked again at the papers in front of him. Blackmail. Of all the things to happen to him, why did it have to be blackmail?  
  
"Its... It's a code, but in an ancient language lost outside the realms of ancient historic studies. I can give you a text containing the original best translation of the runes, but you will need the code wheel to truly understand what it says."  
  
"What do you mean?" Gambit took half a step forward, but Smythe-Cadding's interest was piqued. From his desk draw he pulled out a text and a bottle of brandy. A swig from the bottle restored his nerve, the book he opened on a page containing a table of the exact same symbols as were in Blaze's notes in front of him.  
  
"This is how each of these runes, these letters, would be translated in the modern alphabet. But the writer has used a code wheel, switching each letter for another in a specified order, an A for a T for example, to corrupt the message to the naked eye. Only a person with the right code wheel could break the code. Also, the translation will most likely be in Latin, or another ancient tongue, not in English or another modern language..." Smythe-Cadding peered further over the papers. "They would give me such acclaim for this in the world of history! You must tell me where it came from!"  
  
"No way, ami." Gambit flicked off the lamp, snatched the folder off the desk again, and took the textbook as well. "You stay quiet on this, or your wife find out about you an' Charlene." He started back towards the window.  
  
"But... You said if I helped you I could have those photos!" Smythe-Cadding cried out in a desperate voice.  
  
"Non, ami. I never said that." And with that Gambit was gone, photos and all.  
  
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Logan paced like a caged tiger below the window to Smythe-Cadding's office. What was the Cajun doing up there? No, maybe he didn't want to know. He wasn't even sure anymore why he had come on this mission of Gambit's anyway. Though it did make a change from doin' nothin' he guessed.  
  
There was a heavy thud to his left, and the athletic Cajun was grinning besides Wolverine, arms full of papers and trench coat whirling around him. A flick of his head indicated to Logan that they get going; just as the university campus security guard came round the corner of the redbrick building. The guard was sure he'd seen some movement in the corner of his eye, but when he flashed his torch about, there was nothing.  
  
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"T'anks for the leg-up Wolverine." Remy grinned as they sat drinking cold beer in Diego's bar later that night. "Couldn't have done it without you."  
  
"Yeah well, I hardly signed up for this thing to play sentry outside whilst you have all the fun inside. Write me in a little more next time, okay?"  
  
"Sure thing, ami." Casually Remy flicked open the folder containing Blaze's notes, and the book he had stolen. "I used to play codes all the time when I was a kid. Shouldn't take me too long to work dis one out."  
  
"What about the part where it's all in Latin?" Logan hated to spoil the Cajun's good mood, but he didn't seem the type to have covered the classics in school, if he'd gone to school at all.  
  
"Maybe the Professor'll know some." Remy shrugged, supping his beer. Logan shook his head, yeah this was the biggest break on Storm and Blaze's disappearance they'd had in the months since it had happened, but the Cajun was getting ahead of himself. Wolverine decided to change the subject.  
  
"Where'd you get these photos anyhow?" He slipped in casually, lighting his cigar. Gambit grinned, eyes narrowing.  
  
"Why, you need to blackmail somebody Wolverine?"  
  
"Maybe. How much does it cost?" Logan watched as Gambit leant back against the fake red leather seat of the booth and sighed up at the ceiling.  
  
"Dis time, for Gambit... Maybe t'ree grand's worth of goods an' work over the past few years to earn a favour from my ole ami Tommy. An' I was savin' it for a rainy day too..." He shrugged and looked back at Wolverine. "Guess you can't put a price on what your friends are worth."  
  
"I'll drink to that." 


	27. Scene 27

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome! Also I know nothing about geography, but I did check my coordinates in an atlas, if a rather old one. If it's wrong, I'm sorry.  
  
Scene 27  
  
"We've got it!" In a whirlwind of energy Ilehana and Gambit burst into Professor Xavier's office, interrupting his lesson. Usually so patient, today Xavier was feeling less than helpful, his head was spinning and he was nauseous from the extended time without his powers. Without his powers, still bald and still unable to walk, meaning there was absolutely no justice in the world. It had been lucky that Ilehana's school had taught her Latin when she was younger; this latest project for which she was more qualified than her father had at least kept her mind off the despair of losing her powers.  
  
"No offence Ilehana, Gambit, but this must be the fifth time you have interrupted my lessons with the same report, only to have your code- breaking skills fail on the very next phrase from Blaze's notes." Ilehana and Remy were too excited to hear the tired, sullen aspect to the Professor's reply. Quickly with the help of Kitty and Peter they cleared the Professor's desk and laid out a roll of paper covered in notes, symbols and abbreviations.  
  
"This time we got it right, Professor, I sure." Gambit pulled Blaze's now rather moth-eaten notes out of a pocket of his coat and scattered them over the roll of paper.  
  
"Kitty, here's a piece of chalk. Write down the letters as we translate them on the blackboard okay?" Ilehana requested of her biology student. "It works like this Dad, the top line is obviously the runes, the row below indicates their individual alphabetic value from the book Gambit 'borrowed', and the bottom row is the letter that rune stands for when all the letters are shifted back by twelve places. Gambit, what's the first symbol on the first line of coding?"  
  
"It look like a dead fish to me, Chere. A dead fish standin' on its head." Gambit ran his fingers along the line of runes. "Here, dis one."  
  
Soon after, they had decoded all the runes in the first statement and turned to see what Kitty had written on the board.  
  
"It sure don't look like it means anything to me." The girl said, disappointed.  
  
"That's because it's in Latin." The Professor commented, impressed despite himself.  
  
"It says 'The Dragon King rises, feathered serpent over water, air, earth and flame." Ilehana said in a humble voice. "Rogue, could you be in charge of writing down the translated phrases from everyone?" Rogue looked up, she hadn't even been listening, and nodded abashedly. "We've enough code wheels for five teams, and Gambit has already divided up Blaze's notes. It would be a big help if you could all chip in. Logan, Scott and Kurt will be here to help too, soon as their classes finish."  
  
As soon as all the children were working away, Ilehana turned to her father. "I hate to have to ask, but what are you thinking?"  
  
"I'm staggered. This really is excellent work, Ilehana. And I'm intrigued by this Dragon King idea. Dragons have been such powerful mythical figures in legends right across the world, from the Chinese water dragon, the Celtic fire-breathing winged serpent, dragons in Egypt, and South and Central America..."  
  
"That not all, Professor." Gambit cut in. "I know who Garthen Doking is." The tall, brown-haired Cajun took Kitty's chalk with a charming smile, making the girl blush. Then on the board he wrote in capital letters the name Garthen Doking. Underneath, crossing off each letter from the name as he used them he wrote 'the dragon king'. "It an anagram, an' not a very good one. Garthen Doking is trainin' Blaze, Storm and maybe other girls with elemental-type powers to take over the world for him, to make him dis dragon king."  
  
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Garthen Doking sat behind his desk in his private office, idly tapping his pen on the tabletop. He could do nothing now but wait for the Amentha to proclaim the right time for their prophecies to come true. It did not bother him that their legend may in all probabilities not be true, he had simply fallen in love with the genius of the idea. Convince a cult that you are indeed their traveller, their Dragon King back from the dead, gain their complete support across the globe by presenting them with the four Dark Elements under his own power, then with the support of the cult and the power of the four mutant girls, take over the world. Simple, yet effective. This world has far too long ignored the power of those who do not follow the rules.  
  
He looked at his four goddesses as they stood to attention in each corner of the room, just in front of one of his four stone dragon sculptures, one from each of their countries of origin. They were far-gone under his control now, and under the spell of their own powers, as he had taught them to walk within a fine line of the end of their control. He didn't even need to befuddle them with charm anymore, they believed his every word without question, and he doubted they would even recognise their own mothers. It may have upset certain Amentha members, Elizabeth to name one, that he and not they were in control of the Dark Elements, but Elizabeth as one had been too easily silenced, drowned in her own bathtub.  
  
Now all he had to do was wait...  
  
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"What are these symbols Cajun?" Logan asked, "They don't exist on this chart of yours."  
  
"You sure?" Both Gambit and Ilehana dropped their own investigations and came to see. The children, Scott, Kurt and the Professor had all gone to eat. Logan hadn't been too keen on leaving Gambit and Ilehana working alone yet again, so he'd stayed even as the sun set and he began to crave a beer. Now, cigar in his hand and a frown on his face he'd made it to the notes that recorded what was on Blaze and Storm's rings.  
  
"Yeah I'm sure." He couldn't keep the annoyance out of his voice. Did they think he was stupid or something?  
  
"They are tally marks, Logan. See, a set of numbers in a circle to join them together. Blaze's ring has a five and a two. Storm's has a three and a eight." Ilehana reached over Logan's shoulder to point out his stupidity, feeling his shoulders turn ridged and cold against her. She pulled her hand back to rest her fingers on his shoulder, wishing she had her powers.  
  
"Coordinates." Remy was sure. "You got a map?" Ilehana fetched a globe from a shelf and placed it on the desk. Gambit spun it for a moment, thinking, before stopping the globe with his hand. "Four two-figure numbers to a coordinate, degrees and minutes, latitude and longitude, and presumably four rings. We have two numbers from two rings, a thirty-eight and a fifty- two. Can't be sure but I'd say chance is they is latitude, thirty-eight degrees and fifty-two minutes north."  
  
"How on earth do you know that Cajun?" Logan was incredulous. Gambit turned the globe to show Vixen and Wolverine where his finger had rested to stop the globe.  
  
"Coz that's the latitude of Washington D.C., an' I bet that's Garthen Doking's first target if he wants to take over the world. It all in these rune note things, the Dark Elements risin', the Dragon rulin' again..." Gambit shrugged.  
  
"How very original." Commented Wolverine to Ilehana's smile, as he let his adimantium claws slip through his knuckles. 


	28. Scene 28

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome!  
  
Scene 28  
  
It was raining in Washington D.C., raining thick black tar-like drops that pelted everything so hard it was painful to be outdoors. The wind whipped round the city, making the many umbrellas useless, buffeting the few brave souls that dared venture outside in their lunch hour until they had second thoughts. The weathermen couldn't explain it; the predictions had been for cold but clear days, low wind and morning frosts, not a storm that showed no sign of blowing itself out...  
  
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"You've translated all the phrases in Blaze's notes? Do you understand what has happened to her and Storm any better yet?"  
  
"Its all here Dad. The Amentha are an ancient cult believing in the power of the elements; deities of fire, air, water and earth. They believe that a man will come to them and bring them these goddesses to act as a small army, helping them to take over the world and restore their ancient beliefs. Every sign of how the goddesses will be recognised is right here in Blaze's notes, Garthen Doking or whatever his name is must have had access to the same information and translated it to find Storm, Blaze and two others to satisfy the Amentha's instructions and be proclaimed their leader. Its likely the cult is a powerful one, with members all over the world in government and business that could help Garthen Doking gather the power and support he'd need for such a dangerous enterprise."  
  
Xavier let his daughter finish as the dread grew in his soul. What had this man done to Blaze and Storm and the other two young women to make them do his will? Had he threatened or harmed them in any way? Again he longed for his powers to be returned to him, it would be so easy to use Cerebro to reach out to his two protégées and make sure they were all right...  
  
"Are you even listening to me Dad? The runes say the greatest seat of power will be annihilated first, and there were numbers on Blaze and Storm's rings that correlate to the latitude coordinates of Washington D.C. We've no time to lose, the X-Men must get there now before anyone gets hurt."  
  
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Lightning caused the first deaths. It struck an overhead phone cable on the outskirts of the city, fried three people who had been on the phone at the same time. Then, as the sun began to set unseen behind the storm, the first fires broke out. An industrial warehouse complex, a high school and a post office, though evacuated just in time were all razed to the ground. They had all been within five blocks of one another. With the sudden burst of rain all the drains in the city seemed to suddenly overflow, even though the local government said there was no way that could happen. Cars and lorries and a whole assortment of junk were washed away down streets that became flooding torrents. The power and phones all failed. The emergency services struggled to cope or even get to problem areas. The city felt cut off, no one could get in or out. There were riots, looting, and protests outside the White House. The media was in a feeding frenzy, cameras and reporters braved the weather to give on-the-spot reports. Then the earth quaked.  
  
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When the X-Jet flew over the city, Nightcrawler commented it was like flying over Hell itself. Fires burned unnaturally brightly despite the heavy rain. Roads were split in two by the shaken earth. Buildings were flattened, people screamed and panicked. Vixen and Cyclops argued over the safest landing spot, both angry at being so late. Wolverine spoke in hushed tones to a worried looking Rogue sat next to him. At the back of the blackbird, Gambit rolled his shoulders back in the tight X-Men uniform, trying to get a feel for the movement of the suit.  
  
"Dis no good." He moaned, plucking at his gloves. "Gambit needs to touch things to use his power." Logan looked over and grinned at the Cajun.  
  
"Want a hand?" He slid a single claw through his right index knuckle.  
  
"You take my fingers off, I kill you." Gambit held out his hands and shut his eyes.  
  
"How's that Cajun?" The black material that had covered Gambit's thumbs, index and little fingers now lay on the floor of the jet. The only sign of how close Wolverine had come to taking any of Gambit's fingers was a small cut on his left thumb.  
  
"What you think dis is, Wolverine? Butcher's class?"  
  
"Will you people stop squabbling?" Cyclops demanded. "This is serious."  
  
"So dis, Cyclops." Gambit replied, sucking his thumb to stop the bleeding. "Merde."  
  
"I'm going changing." Ilehana unbuckled her seatbelt and stood.  
  
"Is that such a good idea? We wont be able to communicate with you if you're in animal form." Cyclops reminded Vixen.  
  
"It'll be fine, Scott. Stop worrying." And with that she was gone.  
  
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The blackbird landed with a judder on a school basketball court. The school didn't stand any longer; only a shell remained of blackened brick and charred timber. Lightning snaked across the sky like vines of power, and all around the trees and grasses whispered to each other as if they knew a great secret.  
  
"Well this is creepy." Nightcrawler announced in a chirpy tone, trying to alleviate the doom that made all the X-Men fractious. He didn't wait for the runway to descend, instead poof!-ing to the ground. Behind him a blue- eyed, white Bengal tiger leapt the distance to the ground; Vixen had done changing.  
  
"What do we do first, Cyclops?" Rogue was unsure of herself, but steeled her nerve and removed her right glove. They had a job to do, people needed them. Maybe Bobby could forget that they were X-Men, but Rogue couldn't.  
  
"We work our way through the streets, try and find Storm and Blaze and convince them to stop. It'd be best to split into teams. Rogue comes with me, Vixen and Wolverine, Gambit and Nightcrawler. Stay in contact, this is going to be like looking for two needles in a haystack."  
  
"Yeah, if one needle packed a million volts, and the other a raging inferno, and the haystack was caught in a hurricane, it'd be just like that." Wolverine snarled, enough talk, time for action.  
  
"Remember," Cyclops ignored Wolverine's remarks, "Whatever happens, whatever Garthen Doking has done to them, they are still our friends. Be careful." 


	29. Scene 29

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome! Nearly finished, hope you have all enjoyed it, and thanks for all your support...  
  
Scene 29  
  
The blond haired, blue-eyed five-year-old named Thomas stood in the heavy rain in the corner of the park and screamed. He was scared and lost. The storm had been bad enough, but his mommy had to go to work and needed to drop him off at his grandparents on the way. But then as they were crossing the park like they always did, the earth shook and the trees waved. His mommy had screamed and thrown Thomas towards the road before a tree fell just were he had been stood. The ground cracked and he couldn't see his mommy any more. So he screamed and he screamed and he screamed, even though nobody came.  
  
But suddenly through the darkness of the rain he could see a figure. A tall woman dressed in green, masked and with long, brown hair came towards him in the storm. The trees above him seemed to lean towards the lady. She hadn't seen him, to he screamed again, too scared to make any other noise, tears flooding down his cheeks. With empty eyes the green woman frowned at him slightly, and raised a hand.  
  
Out of nowhere a huge white cat charged down on little Thomas, teeth bared. Thomas stopped crying, he was paralysed with terror. The tiger grabbed him by the hood of his coat, scooped him up and leapt out of the green woman's path. Behind Vixen the ground shook and split, cracks appeared that were more than big enough to swallow a screaming child.  
  
"Hey! Pick on someone your own size!" Wolverine shouted above the roar of the earth readjusting itself. A tiger's leap away, Vixen breathed reassuringly at the small boy she had deposited and batted him in the direction of his panicked mother with a large soft paw. The boy saved, Vixen turned back to see Wolverine leaping enthusiastically into the air above the heaving and bucking ground. Vixen roared a warning as the trees around Wolverine reached out to grab and swipe at him. Logan swiped right back, branches fell to the ground, but he wasn't quick enough. The trees encased him, wrapped him in their branches with his hands pinned to his sides.  
  
Enraged Vixen-as-tiger charged the green clad young woman, succeeding at bowling her over. But as the earth shook in anger, Vixen received a heavy kick to the ribs before being pulled back by yet more tree branches...  
  
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Water surged like rapids through the main streets of the city. Shop windows shattered under the incredible pressure, and the high winds made heavy surf on the waves that clouded the whole world in white. Scott and Rogue clambered from the first storey window of the building they had come through, onto the roof of a stranded police car with its blue lights still flashing. Its former occupants were struggling to make headway, swimming through the swell.  
  
"Rogue!" Cyclops shouted above the roar of the water. "Hold on to me!" He lay down on the roof of the car and reached out to the drowning policemen, feeling with gratitude Rogue grabbing his ankles. The first officer somehow grasped Scott's hand, but a sudden surge threatened to drag Scott into the water again. "No you don't'!" Scott yelled, grabbing the stranded man with his other hand too and slowly pulling him in.  
  
Rogue heard it first, the dull laughter above and somehow in the roar of the flood. Thinking her ears were playing tricks on her, she ignored it, grasping Cyclops' legs harder. He wasn't going to drown like Jean had! But then the laughter came again, and Scott began to slip form her grasp, uniform made to slimy to grip with the amount of froth and water in the air.  
  
"Cyclops! I can't hold you!"  
  
"One more second, Rogue!" The second policeman was starting to sink, to exhausted to keep swimming. Suddenly a figure burst out of the water itself, a transparent woman walking across the tumult towards them. Rogue screamed out to the policemen to move, but they couldn't hear her. The strange woman didn't even look at the men as she commanded the water to suck down first the one Cyclops couldn't reach, and then the one he was holding. She looked straight at Rogue as Cyclops, refusing to give up on the man he held, slid completely from her grasp and started to go headfirst into the water.  
  
"No way!" Rogue screamed above the laughing water, the groans of the men drowning. "No way lady!" She threw down her left glove and with both hands now bared and cold, she flung herself at the woman. For a second she brushed a consciousness, a small girl crying in a body she no longer controlled, but then Rogue plummeted through the woman as though she were only water. Before Rogue could take a breath she was in the flood, cold, disorientated and couldn't tell which way was up....  
  
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"Kurt, I ain't wandering the city til the bars shut, we gotta have a plan about this." Gambit said as he jogged and Nightcrawler poof!-ed along besides him. "I say, Garthen Doking tryin' to take over the world, he do it from there." Gambit pointed out past the city to where the White House stood in its extensive grounds.  
  
"Great. I'm not sure this is such a good idea, Gambit. I'm not exactly a popular figure in the White House these days." Gambit looked at his teammate with a sideways glance. "I did try and assassinate the President not so long go."  
  
"Then you know your way round, eh ami?" Gambit didn't smile; he wasn't so fond of assassins. "Could be useful."  
  
"Actually, not really." Kurt smiled sheepishly. "I wasn't in my right mind. I can get us there quicker than this though..." He grabbed Gambit's left shoulder and they disappeared between places.  
  
A moment later, Gambit opened his eyes, shook his brown mane and took a deep breath. They were stood on the White House lawn, whilst above the storm raged, lightning snaking from clouds to nearby trees, blowing them apart and setting them on fire. The atmosphere was thick with the smell of smoke, wet wood burning despite itself.  
  
"I think we've found them." Muttered Kurt... 


	30. Scene 30

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Reviews always welcome! Nearly finished, hope you have all enjoyed it, and thanks for all your support...  
  
Scene 30  
  
Brown eyes vacant and unseeing, skin and fine flyaway hair coated in a film of bright orange fire, Blaze did not walk so much as float over the White House lawn. Under her, the grass crisped and burned. Fireballs danced around her hands like children eager to please. Without so much as a flick of her wrist she commanded the fireballs to race up the steps to blow apart the front doors of the building. Security personnel poured out, guns blazing, but the bullets seemed to melt before they could do as much as graze Blaze's skin.  
  
In the sky above, silhouetted white against the blackness of the rain clouds, Storm seemed to ripple as lightning washed over her. Her hair stood on end with static, flowing like a white halo in the high winds that kept her in the sky. Her eyes where white, lightning flew from her hand and fried three guards before they knew what had hit them. Blaze kept walking.  
  
"X-men! We've found them!" Kurt yelled down the radio, but the only reply was static.  
  
"We're on our own, elf." The Cajun commented; eyes fixed on Blaze and Storm. Neither young woman seemed to have noticed them; they were so intent on their target. Gambit reached a hand into the pocket of his trench coat and pulled out a card. It may not look like the cutting end of style over this X-men uniform, but he'd not found a better way of carrying ammo all these years. The card began to throb a pale orange; he needed to make a decision. Try and stop Storm and Blaze, or protect them from the guns of the men who defended the White House. "I'm sorry Blaze."  
  
The first card got Blaze's attention. She stopped in her ember tracks. In the air above there was a scream as Nightcrawler appeared next to Storm and tackled her in the air, distracting her. The scream was his as Storm ran unleashed lightning power through her old friend. He fell like a stone to the ground, only the fact that he had been so high up in the first place gave him time to regain his senses and teleport out of danger.  
  
Gambit didn't have time to help. His charged cards were hurting Blaze where no bullet could get through her fire-shield. And she was not impressed. She turned and bore down on him, anger the only emotion she showed. Gambit stopped throwing cards, instead reaching into an inside pocket and pulling out his extendable pole. He didn't want to hurt her, just keep her occupied til someone came up with a way to get her to remember who she was.  
  
**This will be difficult Gambit. I have already tried to make contact with Storm and Blaze, but their minds are sealed to me. **  
  
**Professor? Am I glad to hear you! **  
  
**Listen Gambit, there may yet be a way to get through to Blaze. Something that Garthen Doking has been feeding them has given the four girls a telepathic bond in the same way he cured Blaze of August King's attack and has put Ilehana and I out of action for so long. It is this that blocks my telepathy now, but something tells me the link you have with Blaze is still functioning, sealed off and so protected by my own work. I will help you, but it must be you that punches through past these barriers and convinces Blaze to stop this madness. If she stops, the others should too. **  
  
**No problem Professor, just show me how. ** There was stubborn determination in Gambit's mind-voice. Suddenly like being borne off a high cliff in a strong gale, the Professor was in Gambit's mind, grasping the faint thread that connected Blaze and Gambit together, forcing Gambit along it with increasing force. Just before the inevitable breakthrough into Blaze's mind, the Professor pulled out leaving Gambit alone.  
  
"Arrgh!" Blaze and Gambit and Storm all screamed out at the same time. Elsewhere in the city, the tumult stopped briefly as both Gaia and Tsunami reached to grasp pounding heads with their hands. Wolverine sliced through the confining tree branches with a satisfied grunt. Cyclops grabbed hold of the car roof, fired a stunning blast at Tsunami and then dived below the surface to rescue Rogue. Ilehana body checked Gaia with a tiger's full weight, knocking her head against a tree trunk. Nightcrawler teleported up to catch Storm as she began to fall, winds dropping and rain easing, then teleported back to safety.  
  
"What are you doing to me?" All four young women asked as one, but it was Blaze's words they spoke as she glowed like an inferno, ready to consume Gambit where he stood.  
  
**I know it you in there, Blaze, Laura. It still you no matter what they done to you. ** Gambit forced his way into her mind, not worrying about her forgiveness later. **You have to remember who you are! **  
  
"Who are you to tell me this, peasant, pauper, insect?" Again all four mouths moved, Ilehana and Logan gave each other confused looks, tiger and Wolverine. Scott tugged Rogue out of the flood, throwing her full length across the car roof as she coughed and spluttered. Nightcrawler stood agape as Storm looked right through him, her expression identical to Blaze's only a few feet away. Gambit lost his patience. He bore down on her with years of memories, good and bad, drunk and sober, passionate and angry. He watched as Blaze alone staggered back, visibly thrown by the weight of his mind on hers, conscious that Storm was not moving. It was working.  
  
"I am a goddess of the Dark Elements. The Dragon King has called me. In comparison to him you are nothing but dust and ash." As Gaia spoke to someone unseen Ilehana risked a brief mind contact with Logan to let him know here powers were back. Scott took Tsunami's distraction to dive back into the flood and drag out a policeman and try to resuscitate him.  
  
**That's not the first time you've said that kinda thing about some new boyfriend I didn't like an' you know it! ** He pushed more memories onto her, the first time she saved his neck on a job, arriving just in time with a getaway car as the French police surrounded him, even though he hadn't asked her to get involved. The first big heist they had planned and executed together. The hours he'd spent teaching her tricks to contain her dangerous firepower. The first time he'd ever tried to kiss her and been turned down...  
  
**But... You were blind drunk that night. I didn't even think you remembered trying it... ** Blaze's mind-voice was weak, but it was her and only her Remy heard in his head.  
  
**I'd had one beer all night. You shot me down good, Chere. It was less embarrassing to pretend I didn't remember a t'ing. ** He walked towards her, mind-voice gentle. **Please, Laura, stop all this. Get the others to stop fighting, you're killin' people here... **  
  
She didn't reply, but Gambit could feel the tension as she fought to get through to the other young women. He caught her as she collapsed, fire vanishing as her energy reserves dissipated. Her clothes were nothing but rags and ashes, her face ivory white and eyes closed. She reminded him so much of the sixteen year old stray he'd collected on his way home one night and never thought about getting rid of since. Just as he had that night in Paris he took off his coat and wrapped her up in it gently.  
  
Nightcrawler caught Storm as she too groaned and collapsed. Cyclops had to brave the flood one more time as Tsunami lost control of her powers and sank, now solid, below the surface. Gaia was more graceful, not fainting but sitting slowly down and shaking from head to foot. Vixen rumbled her pleasure deep in her tiger's throat that it was all over.  
  
"No!" A man shouted as again the White House lawn was filled with the echo of guns being readied. "I am too close!"  
  
"Its over Garthen," Storm said in a croaky voice, helped to stand up by Kurt. "We won't fight for you anymore."  
  
"Look around you Storm! The Amentha is not merely another psycho cult, they are a ready trained army, here to put me, The Dragon King, into power!" Sure enough, the guns that were ready were in the arms of Garthen's followers, and all the muzzles were trained on Storm and her friends.  
  
"Listen to me!" Storm called out to the Amentha. "This man is no reincarnated hero! We are not goddesses, we are just mutants, look at us! An ex-thief, a student, a secretary and a schoolteacher! Don't start something now you will regret for the rest of time!"  
  
"It's already begun, foolish girl!" Garthen screamed back as his troops' certainty began to waver. "It's way out of... Arggh!"  
  
**Gareth Daniel King, ** Xavier via Cerebro cut through all of Garthen's, Gareth's mental barriers and the man who would rule the world slumped to his knees in despair and fear. **Gareth Daniel King you have a chance to stop this now. You have had great tragedy in your life I know. You have always been able to control your mild telepathic powers of persuasion. But you could not teach your more powerful son to do the same; he was too young, too naturally strong. You suffered greatly when he killed your wife, his mother, Solumné... **  
  
"Stop..." Gareth rolled around on the grass, tears falling down his face. "Stop it..."  
  
**But that is not excuse for what you did to him, experimenting on him, producing chemicals that alter the telepathic abilities of mutants, selling them and him to the highest bidder. And now you have finally succumbed to madness, killing innocent people in a manic attempt to rule the world. Did you think you would ever succeed? Or has August's long range grasping for his father distracted you from the fact that it could never be. **  
  
"August is dead, he has to be... I haven't felt him for so long now..." Kurt and Storm exchanged looks, August King, the little black telepathic boy?  
  
**Gareth's wife was black too; he was sane before August killed her by mistake. ** Ilehana filled in for the X-men, having grasped the gist of her father's telepathic conversation with Gareth.  
  
**No, he's not dead. How else can I know all this, he is here with me now, but his powers have been burnt out of him. I will have him returned to your home if and only if you call a halt to this madness, disband the Amentha and never bother the four young women you chose again. ** Xavier, ever patient, placed a hand on the shoulder of the little boy who sat so very still next to him in Cerebro. By the door Magneto smiled slightly, then left.  
  
"All right, all right..." Gareth sobbed. "Just make this all stop." 


	31. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without asking.  
  
A/N: Last chapter!!!! So you'd better all leave reviews this time, or I'll write another sequel!!!! Enjoy...  
  
Epilogue  
  
Bobby Drake leant over the pane of glass in front of him, trying not to think too hard about how far he would fall if it broke. Hastily he clipped the safety harness to the ornamental strut that crossed the top of the piece of glass on the roof of the department store. Slowly he leaned back, feeling more secure now. Taking a breath as the wind ruffled his hair, he placed a bare hand to the glass pane til he heard it crunch under his power. Carefully, not allowing a shard to drop, he gathered the ice-covered glass to him and placed them on the ledge besides him. This was it. One small job, and he could eat for the first time in weeks. He could look after himself.  
  
"Hey there Iceman." A slightly amused female whispered behind him, making him start. "What you doing so high up in the world?"  
  
"Blaze? How did you find me? I thought you were long gone..." He couldn't hide the surprise in his voice.  
  
"The Professor sent us, obviously. Though you might appreciate a word with some more experienced thieves." A shadow behind Blaze's moved forward, Gambit here as well? He winked at Bobby.  
  
"Mind if I take a look?" The Cajun asked, taking the safety harness from Bobby's hand and going to the hole where the glass pane had been. Going in head first, body straight until he was through the window frame, Gambit put all his weight on the rope before letting go and tumbling to stand upright on an ornate beam that crossed the shop, coat billowing.  
  
"Show off." Muttered Blaze, but her voice was tinted with pride. She didn't look at Bobby as they both watched the Cajun taking a look around the shop. "What are you doing here Bobby? Who sent you to rob this place? Are you that broke and you didn't just come home?"  
  
"I don't know the name of the man who sent me, but yeah, I'm that starved I didn't ask. Some street kid said the guy was recruiting mutants, and that it was good pay. And I can't go back..." Bobby choked a bit as he thought of the school, but with the ease of long practice he force it out of his mind.  
  
"So now you turn thief? You sure you've thought this through? What if you trip an alarm? How many getaway routes do you have sussed out? What if the police corner you? Would you use your power on them if it meant getting away? Could you live with yourself if you killed a man, especially when you were in the wrong? What about the shop workers? How will what you do affect them tomorrow?" Blaze didn't patronise him, for which he was grateful. She just presented the questions to him as she would think about them herself, kind of a checklist.  
  
"You and Gambit did it." He still couldn't keep the slight spoilt child aspect out of his voice. "You live with yourselves."  
  
"But we've both done things we will never forgive ourselves for, and no I wont give any examples." She met his eyes. "Look Bobby, you want to do this, fine. Gambit and I are only here to make sure you know what you are getting into. But there is a man back at that mansion who wants nothing but the best for you, the best exam results this summer, to pay you through university, maybe even offer you a job as a teacher in a few years. You think Remy and I would have been thieves if we'd had chances like that?"  
  
"I can't go back while Rogue's still there." Bobby couldn't hide the truth from himself anymore.  
  
"I know she broke your heart Bobby," Blaze spoke gently, not wanting to offend but this needed to be said. "But it's not the end of the world unless you let it be. Don't let her ruin your life."  
  
Before Bobby could reply to that, Gambit reappeared and lifted himself easily out of the window frame. "Dis a thieves guild trial if ever I seen one. Gives me shivers jus' thinkin' one of them creeps round here watchin' us. Let get out of here, Chere, you comin' Bobby?"  
  
"Alright," Iceman sighed heavily, not sure if he was doing the right thing. He had no desire to become a thieves guild minion. "If we can stop by a takeaway on the way?"  
  
Blaze laughed. "Not a problem! Have you ever known me pass up on food?"  
  
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"Oh, poor Electra... You know I never thought I'd say that out loud." Blaze and Gambit stood in the gazebo in the far corner of the Xavier mansion's grounds, watching the early spring night close in around them.  
  
"I didn't think I'd be the one to take her deathbed confession, either..." Gambit ran his fingers through his mop of hair, wondering whether or not to tell Blaze the truth.  
  
"Anything juicy?" Blaze teased gently. Since the episode on the White House lawn, any telepathic tendencies she'd had had been seared out of her. That included her so-called-bond with Gambit, the bond that Ilehana had now diagnosed as a side-effect of the DNA specific virus Gareth King had used on Blaze to give her powers that were not her own in the first place. She hated feeling so separate from Remy. Kurt had been the only one to come up with a different explanation for the link and its disappearance. The blue elf seemed to believe the link was truly mystical, even spiritual. He was convinced its entire purpose had been to let Gambit save so many lives in Washington, now its function was complete; there was no reason for it to remain. Blaze thought it was a much nicer idea than Ilehana's.  
  
"It was her," Remy began, knowing link or no Blaze could get him to tell her anything if she set her heart to it. Best not to have secrets to hide. "It was Electra who set Jacobi on us both, Electra tried to have you killed, Electra put us through all dis..." He sighed heavily.  
  
"Why?" Blaze asked, looking up at her tall friend as he stared out over the lawn into the darkness.  
  
"Coz I broke her heart." Blaze couldn't help but smile at him; he looked so depressed about it all. Did he regret all that had brought them to the mansion, to the X-men, so much? Or did he rue what might have happened to them if Electra had just disappeared as she was supposed to? Blaze tried to cheer him up with another tease.  
  
"Yeah, well you always did have crummy taste in girls." Remy finally turned and looked down at Blaze, a small smile creeping into the corners of his eyes. Carefully he wrapped his muscular arms around Blaze and pulled her close.  
  
"You sure about that, Chere?" He whispered, before kissing her soundly.  
  
**The End** 


End file.
